Sri Lanka
© Peter Høvring

Sri Lanka

For 25 years Sri Lanka was the centre of a civil war between the Tamil Tigers, on one side, and the Sri Lankan government, on the other. Because of the war that ended in 2009 nearly half a million people lived as fugitives in their own country.

Sri Lanka was badly hit by the violent tsunami in Southeast Asia in 2004, and in no time at all one and a half million people became homeless.

What DanChurchAid did

DanChurchAid has worked in Sri Lanka since the 1980s, focusing on:

  • dotHuman rights
  • dotInternally displaced people
  • dotHelping survivors from the tsunami in December 2004

After the tsunami we raised about 70 million kroner. The money went to:

  • dotEmergency aid in Sri Lanka and India
  • dotReconstructing solid houses
  • dotHelping fishing communities, boats and nets
  • dotMicroloans for women
  • dotTeaching disaster preparedness

During and following the civil war we have provided relief aid for the people who lived in camps and sought to rehouse fugitives in their home areas. Furthermore, we have supported the Tamils who had fled Sri Lanka for the Indian state, Tamil Nadu, where the camps would sometimes house 60.000 people.