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CHAPTER 12

Bringing a smile to the little ones at Menik Farm

s Sri Lanka was limping back to normalcy after the worst natural disaster, the The reality was unimaginable. Menik Farm became a teeming mass of people
Atsunami, in recent history, the climax of the worst man-made disaster hit the and it was amidst these conditions that the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs
country. sent out an SOS to the Hemas Group for support with vulnerable children in the
preschool age.
The conflict which had held the country in its vice-like grip for 30 long years came to
an end with a massive humanitarian crisis engulfing the north and the east which had “No one was allowed into Menik Farm except military personnel and authorized
been under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). people,” recalls the Executive Director of the Hemas Outreach Foundation, Shiromi
Masakorala, who along with the Director and the Deputy Director of the Children’s
There was a flood of humanity – men, women and children – fleeing the violence as Secretariat, Yamuna Perera and Jayantha Peiris respectively, worked closely with army
well as being used as human shields. For the authorities, the biggest challenge was officials.
where to accommodate them and they quickly chose Chettikulam in the Vavuniya
district in the Northern Province. After the Chairperson of the Hemas Outreach Foundation, Abbas Esufally, secured
clearance from the Ministry of Defence for Hemas staff, Shiromi ventured into Menik
The location was Menik Farm and the authorities expected around 280,000 people Farm not just paying 1 visit but 10, taking with her water and maalu paan (fish buns)
who had lost everything, their homes, their land and their meagre possessions, to for the IDPs, amidst the stringent security.
converge there.
The images were stark and shocking. Small children without arms and legs were
In February 2009, as the northeast conflict was heading towards a resolution, the plan crawling on their buttocks (rootanawa) in the muck and the filth. They did not have
was to set up Kadirgamar Village as Zone 1 in Menik Farm, with temporary plank crutches or wheelchairs. The sight was pathetic.
homes, 100 showers and 100 toilets along with a mini supermarket for people to buy
incidentals as the government was providing everything else. Menik Farm was a People were also not familiar with toilets and showers and were bathing in a pit
restricted area as among the thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were brimming with muddy water.
Tiger combatants who could stir up trouble.

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