120 villages to be upgraded in North

by Dhaneshi YATAWARA

A program to rehabilitate and develop communities who are being resettled will be launched in 120 villages under the 'Yali Pibidemu' (Reawakening) program in the Northern Province. This will take place shortly along with the resettlement program now under way in the newly liberated areas. "The new project will be launched in collaboration with the Emergency North Recovery Project (ENREP) and we will focus primarily on certain selected villages from the five districts of the Northern Province," Reawakening Project Director P.H. Sugathadasa said.

Sugathadasa told the Sunday Observer that the ENREP will handle the large scale infrastructure development work while the Reawakening project will steer the community based programs. Cash-for-work programs were carried out in these villages during the past six months as one of the initial livelihood development programs.

The next step of the Reawakening project will be to set up Village Development Organisations (VDOs) in these communities. The project will focus on poor and vulnerable families, widows and youth in these villages.

Village rehabilitation and development projects are now in progress in 295 villages in 12 districts including the North and the East at a cost of US$ 84.8 million. "The project will be completed in 2013 and the newly liberated areas of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu were included early this year," said Senior Monitoring and Evaluating Officer, Reawakening Project S. Shashiprabha.