Transcript IDP_Presentation_Benefit_Concert_Aug_22

The Internally
Displaced Persons
(IDPs) of Sri Lanka
SRI LANKA
 Island nation in South Asia
 Home to approx. 20 million people
 74% Sinhalese
 18% Tamil (Sri Lankan & Indian
origin)
 8% Muslim
 Long-standing civil war since 1983
 De facto state in the Northeast
under the LTTE
 LTTE now defunct; all territory
under govt. control (as of May 2009)
Internally Displaced Persons
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are
people forced to flee their homes but who,
unlike refugees, remain within their
country's borders
United Nations report, Guiding Principles on
Internal Displacement uses the definition:
“internally displaced persons are persons or
groups of persons who have been forced or
obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places
of habitual residence, in particular as a result of
or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict,
situations of generalized violence, violations of
human rights or natural or human-made
disasters, and who have not crossed an
internationally recognized State border”
Current State of IDPs in Sri Lanka
 Focus on the current crisis
 279,208 IDPs in 40 camps in the
northern districts of Jaffna, Mannar,
Trincomalee and Vavuniya1
 120,000 are children; 55,000 are
estimated to be under 10 years of age
 44% of children severely malnourished
 As many as 5,000 children had limbs
amputated from Jan-May 2009
 2,000 vulnerable IDP children
(orphans, unaccompanied minors,
children separated from families);
approx. 1,000 are now orphans2
1 United Nations, OCHA ‘ Sri Lanka: Vanni Emergency Situation Report #24,
July 2, 2009’.
2 UNICEF, July 9 Report
Life in an IDP Camp
 Overcrowded
 Toilet to IDP ratio 1:100
3
 Spread of communicable
diseases
 Insufficient access to medical
care, clean drinking water
 Improper drainage, sanitation
& hygiene
 Lack of freedom of movement
 Separation from family
members
3 IRIN article titled “Too many people” at huge IDP camp,
June 11, 2009
Monsoon Season
 2,000 makeshift shelters flooded
by heavy rain last weekend 4
 Wooden toilets washed away;
damage to sewer lines and water
treatment plants
 “Public Health Disaster waiting to
happen”
4 IRIN article titled “Heavy rains compound IDP woes” August 17, 2009
Health Concerns
As of mid-June:
 1,060 cases of dysentery
 More than 5,000 cases of diarrhea
 More than 12,000 cases of chickenpox (declining)
 2,139 cases of Hepatitis A (declining) 5
 Malnutrition– particularly children and pregnant women
5 IRIN article titled “Rains raise fears of malaria setback” June 30, 2009
Current Needs of IDPs &
Future Projects
 Emergency medication & hygiene kits
 Milk powder for children and pregnant mothers
 Psychosocial rehabilitation
 Nutrition Programs
 Ongoing mobile clinics: $1/patient
 Build more toilets and improve access to clean water
 Prosthesis
 Physical Rehabilitation: $85,000 physiotherapy unit in Mannar
district
 Micro-credit programs for widows
 Empowerment projects
With generous donations, IMHO has sent
over $500,000 to the IDP cause
Projects that have benefited include:
 Emergency medical relief – medicines, hospital supplies, surgical
materials
 Funding of healthcare workers within the camps $50/worker/month
 Temporary toilets - $320/toilet – to prevent epidemic of
infectious disease
 Psychiatric care – emergency psychiatric medications, ongoing
counseling, inpatient work
 Nutrition – food, milk powder
 Orphans
 Amputees – 30,000 amputees requiring artificial prosthetics
($250/prosthesis)
How your donations can help…
 Operating Cost of Primary Health Care
Centers:
 $1 USD per patient
 $30 USD a month = 30 patients
receive primary health care
 Cost for Running Mobile Clinics
 $ 0.75 USD per patient visit
 Sponsoring nutritional needs of a
child
 $ 0.75 USD per day per child
 Maternal Nutrition Project
 $ 100 USD per pregnancy
 Supporting a Hemodialysis (HD)
session
 $50 USD per HD session
 $20,000 USD per annum
 Supporting a Child for Cardiac
Surgery
 $3,000 USD per procedure
 Incentive Allowance for Physicians
to Work in Rural Areas
 $100 USD per physician/month
 Supporting widows through microcredit programs
 $250 USD per mother
Donate Today
Please make your tax-deductible donation today!
 Stop by one of our booths here tonight
 By Check
 Online
 Direct Debit
Visit our website for more details:
www.TheIMHO.org
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!