Sri Lanka: A Fishing Community in Sri Lanka Receives a Service Centre

In the last few months, ICEIDA has handed over four service centres at landing sites in Sri Lanka but the centres are a part of development aid directed towards the communities of fishermen on the island. Women organisations have increasingly taken over the management of the centres.

A service centre was recently handed over in Ulhitiya, the fourth of twenty-five comparable centres which ICEIDA will build. “There seems to be great satisfaction with the arrangement of having the women as managers, not least among the fishermen,” says Gunnar Þórðarson, ICEIDA’s Project Manager of fisheries in Sri Lanka. “They can then focus on the fishing which is at the basis of income and sustenance in these areas, he adds. In the service centres there are facilities for the office of the fishermen’s cooperative society, meetings, the office of the fisheries inspector and fishing gear maintenance. There is consumable drinking water, electricity and toilet facility in the building.

A strong non-governmental organisation in Sri Lanka, Sewalanka, has, in collaboration with ICEIDA, started to work with the residents of the fishermen communities to utilise the service centres, support the residents to self-help and strengthen the manpower of the communities. “The cession of the centre in Ulhitya was carried out at a festive ceremony at night and the occasion was used for a general celebration in the fishermen community,” says Gunnar. The president of the women’s organisation, Deva Matha Sewa, officially took over the management of the service centre and present was a representative from ICEIDA, the Deputy Minister of Fisheries in Sri Lanka, the minister of fisheries in the district, a representative from the fishermen’s cooperative society in the village and a representative from Sewalanka.

“The residents have high expectations regarding the centre, especially concerning the meeting facilities, which allows them to come together and talk about joint interests. That is a premise for joint decisions regarding the development of the community which could lead to increased quality of life for the residents,” says Gunnar.