Cooperative farm and the community Development Programme in the East

Meeting with the resettled families

YMCA of Pamunugama is in the process of developing a community development programme for a group of people resettled after 24 years at Ottachchakulama 29 Km of North of Gomarankadawela in the Eastern Province. There are 38 families resettled who had to ran away from their lands in 1984 due to the war. Though they are resettled, still they are living with very poor conditions. YMCA have formed smaller groups among these families by now and they have already started savings and YMCA has already provided seeds to restart farming and soon there will be new 3 wells which they can use to get water for farming during the dry season. YMCA of Pamunugama have already been able to find a land to start the cooperative farm together with this community. Premachandra Edirisinghe, a young man has been appointed as the field officer and our good friend W.M. Disanayake (dedicated man for the community in the area) coordinate the peoject.  



New farm supported by the YMCA

Paralarly to this new initiative we have expanded our educational programme in Gomarankadawela area by providing more extra educational classes and soon planing to build a small community house that can be used for educational classes and other social gatherings. We get the fullest support from Sumanasara Thero in the Medawachchiya Buddhist Temple to carry out all these work. Group of YMCA Pamunugama leaders visited the area on 10-12 October and there will be a nother visit on 8 November to examine the process and to conduct a programme for the children and parents of the Kivulkada school in Gomarankadawela. YMCA Pamunugama involved with this process as an extention of the friendship we have with the community in the Gomarankadawela area and the US embassy supports us financially.