Peacebuilding and social cohesion, Response to Negative coping mechanisms against the current crisis, Gender-based violence (GBV/SGBV), and violence against children

1 st of July 2023 to 31 st December 2023

Locations

Mullaitivu District

Beneficiaries

School Children, Youth, Community Members, women, and men who are psychosocially challenged

Project intervention

The Mullaitivu district in Sri Lanka faced many difficulties due to the high levels of poverty and the destruction from the civil war. To override these issues, an initiative was devised to help empower the local people and address these issues. The intervention was made up of three significant elements; establishing mental health support services to address coping mechanisms, increasing the capacity of local leaders to mediate and resolve conflicts, and creating a referral system for addressing violence against children. To begin with, the project worked to implement a mental health awareness and education campaign to raise public awareness of the available services as well as a medical screening for fifty participants. Furthermore, the project provided counseling services to twenty individuals and awareness training to the youth, schools, and CBOs to warn them about the dangers of alcohol and drugs. Street dramas were also introduced to further spread awareness amongst the community. Additionally, the project focused on escalating the local leaders’ potential to resolve conflicts by providing educational and training sessions to members of the mediation board and religious leaders. It was important to help connect different groups to build relationships and achieve common objectives, so youth groups and community-based initiatives were initiated. Finally, the project works to build a referral system for violence addressed toward children to better protect them. Regular meetings will be organized to strengthen village child rights monitoring committees, and extensive child rights training will be given to the school teachers. Due to the efforts of this initiative, the Mullaitivu district will be able to reach higher levels of empowerment and improvement of the resolution, of mental health, and violence against children. It is clear that this project intervention will enable the local population to address the many issues within the district.