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ContentofNewsletter

01.USAIDSARIENERGYPROGRAM

02.ENVIRONMENTFRIENDLYEFFORTOFBOARLASGAMUWA

03.NEWMILESTONEOFHORANAHOSPITAL

04.WASTEMANAGEMENTPROGRAMOFHILLCOUNTRY

05.COMMUNITYBASEBIOGASPROGRAMDEHIWALA

06.NEWTURNINGPOINTOFNORTHPROVINCE

07.GOLDENMOMENTSOFHISTORY

08.NEWEXPERIMENTOFBIOGAS

09.PEOPLEMOVEMENTOFHELPO

10.PEOPLE’SMOVEMENT&COMMUNITY

11.ASHELTERFORTHEHOMELESSPEOPLE

12.AGREATOPPORTUNITYFORCOMMUNITYLEADERS

13.AGROUNDLEVELSOCIALBENEFIT

14.PEOPLEMOVEMENTBRANCHOPENING

15.COMMUNITYDRIVENDEVELOPMENTPROGRAM
USAID/SARIEnergyProgram



HELPO is implementing energy saving


program with the support of USAID / SARI
ENERGY. Under this programwe constructed
many biogas units within the Galle and those
biogas units are function well. The previous
constructed biogas units were provided as
grant.


We decided to change the program from this


month. Now people know about the benefits
andeffectiveofthebiogas.Nowwedecidedto
construct the rest of other two biogas units under
loanbasis.Manyofpeoplerequestbiogasunitsand
theywouldliketogetitunderloanbasis.Through
this fund we expect to establish a revolving fund
andthroughthatfundweexpecttoconstructmore
biogasunitsunderloanbasis.HELPOisseekinga
sustainablebiogasprogramnowbecausepeoplecan
get major benefits from the biogas and they know
that.Evenweneededasustainableprogramthatis
whywedecidedtogivethisunderloanbasis.


Ourfinalgoalistoeestablishastrongrevolving
fundandconstructmorebiogasunitsunderthe
loan basis. Environment fund of the CBO is
expanding every month from the biogas user’s
monthlybasisfund.Thisisanewlyaddedthing
fortheprogram.InnextmonthHELPOwishes
to conduct more awareness program and start
theconstructionsoftwobiogasunitsunderloan
basis.


Under this way we could able to overhead our project target because we decided to
construct 05 community biogas units and that is already completed and we expect to
reachtomoretwobiogasunitsandthisprocesswillgocontinue.





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AnEnvironmentFriendlyeffortofGovernmentinstitution

Boaralasgamuwa is located very near by
Colombo City. In this area has an Army camp
and there are many Army officers of the camp.
Sincelastfewyearstheamountofthecamphas
been increased. On the other hand waste
generation also increased. They had no enough
space to dump the waste. The army needed a
quick and sustainable solution for the waste
problem.


Waste Management Authority of Western


Provincehasbeeninvolvedtothisproblemand
they got the help of HELPO to implement the
program. We introduced a biogas unit and
awareness programs for the Army camp. With
the support of waste management authority we
could able to implement a full waste
managementprograminsideofthearmycamp.


Atthemomentweabletofinishthebiogasunit
construction work. In next week we expect to
conduct awareness programs to beneficiaries of the camp. Conducting awareness
programs are very essential for a proper program. They don’t have any knowledge
aboutthebiogasanditsfunctionprocess.


The first program we hope to conduct is about the value and benefits of the biogas.
Through this we explain why biogas important how this waste effects to increase the
Global Warming and Climate change. How
waste and biogas can be a resource for the
people are main topics that we discuss with
them.


The second program is about Maintain and


Management of biogas unit. This is a technical
workshopforthebeneficiary.Throughthatway
they can get good idea about how they should
implementthebiogasunit.Thisprogramisvery
necessarytoincreasecapacityofthem.



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NewMilestoneofHoaranaBaseHospital

Horana Base Hospital is located in Kaluthara
Districtandoneofmainhospitalsofthearea.
Morethanthousandsofpeoplearecomingto
gettreatmentsfromthehospital. Thehospital
is middle scale hospital and hospital had to
face a waste problem. Hospital didn’t have
solutionandtheyhandedovertheresponsible
tolocalauthorityandthatprocessdidn’twork
properly.


On that time they had to find alternative


solutionforwasteproblem.WiththeinvolvementoftheOfficeoftheRegionalDirector
ofHealthServiceKalthuraandHELPOabletofindasustainablesolutiontothewaste
problem that is conducting waste management and biogas program inside of the
hospital.


Now major construction part has been finished.


Within few weeks later we can start the
conducting awareness programs for the Hospital
Staff. Conducting waste management program to
hospital is a huge challenge because they are
working with Hazards waste mainly. We need to
verifythereisnothazardswastewithotherwaste
and waste separation should be very properly
withinthehospitalpremises.


This
program is totally funded from the Government
because now government has been realized that
biogas is cost effective and profitable program.
Even they realize that institution can get more
benefits from the biogas program. Early
Government had different idea about the biogas
theyhadbadand negativeideaaboutthe biogas
anditsbenefits.Nowtheirattitudeandpolicyhas
beenchanged.Theyexpecttopromotethebiogas
concepttootherplaces.Earlytheyhadnogoodandproperexampleofbiogasbutmany
placesareimplementingthisconcept.


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AuniqueWasteManagementProgramtoHillCountryofSriLanka

Gampola is one of main hill country area of
the country and this is rich with many
natural resources. Pure water and natural
forestsarefewofnaturalresources.Thereisa
placename“GangaihalaKoralaya”andwith
the support of Local Authority of the
“Gangaihala Koralaya” HELPO could able
to implement another biogas program in
mentionarea.


The local authority had huge dumping yard


and this area situated near to the pure water resource area. This dumping yard was
hugedisastertotheareabiodiversityandnaturalwaterresourceswerepollutedfrom
the dumping yard. Local authority has been
filled the dumping yard and there is no place
to dump more waste but they have to collect
thewasteandthatistheirresponsible.


Onthattimelocalauthorityhadfewoptionsas
quick solutions, one is move to another area
andusecollectwasteanduseitasproperway.
They chosen the second way and they agreed
to construct the biogas. With their funding
HELPO started to construction of the biogas
unitin“GangaihalaKoralaya”.


Now all constructions are finished and we


have to conduct the awareness programs to
the local authority officers and relevant
peopleofthefield.Nowtheycansolvetheir
waste problem because this biogas unit is
sustainable solution to their waste problem
and through this they can get biogas for the
dailyusage.Nowenvironmentpollutionhas
been stopped and the area is secure. Now
they expect to get the biogas for daily needs
inprevioustimethewastewashugedisaster
forthembuttheyhavealternativeenergysourceforthem.


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CommunityBasedBioGasProject,Wasteisavaluableresource
forus……….

The Dehiwala Mt. Laviniya city area in Sri Lanka
is very high population & the waste was a much
big challenge for them. With collaboration of
Dehiwala Municipal Council & by technical
support of HELPO, community Bio Gas unit
implemented in Dehiwala “Badowita”area. With
the idea to find a sustainable solution for the
waste of that area this was specialty constructed
withthefinancialsupportCITYNETJapan.


In the process of construction the Dehiwala


municipalcouncilgaveusavaluablesupportby
givinglabourfreeofcostaswellasmachineries
also.Communityoftheareaalsocontributedfor
the program too. In present time we have
finishedtheconstructionsofthebiogasunit&it
has designed to provide gas for four families of
that area. As we have done some awareness
programbeforetheconstructioncommunityhad
a grate intention regarding this bio gas unit as
theydidn’thaveanyideaearlier.


Nowweareplanningtodoexperienceexchange
programs with our southern part community to
conveythemessageoftodohomegardeningby
usingthisfertilizeraswellastouseofthisgasas
energy products for them. As this unit will
maintain by the community it will be more
advantage if we could aware them much.
Further more we are designing to do
maintenance & management training programs
also to give them guidance to maintain the unit
inproperwaywithpropergarbageinsetsystem.Wehopethatcommunitywillgetreal
benefits & they will be environmental friendly by using the waste in proper way to
gettingadvantagesfromthisbiogasunit.


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AnewturningpointoftheNorthProvinceSchools

JaffnaDistrictisnewlydevelopingdistrictof
theSriLanka.Thisnewlydevelopingdistrict
and this was really suffering from 30 years
war and they need to develop many things.
But during the last 30 years they lost many
things.TheGovernmentandmanyLocaland
InternationalOrganizationare implementing
many development programs in North and
EastDistricts.


With the development people forgot about


the natural resources of the area. Majority of the
districtareusingfirewoodasenergysource.Jaffna
onefamilyusesfirewoodnearly100KGpermonth
andthecostisRs.1750.00.Annuallytheyburn1200
KGthatishugeenvironmentdisasterandannually
they expend Rs.21, 000.00. They don’t have any
alternativesolutionasanenergysource.Dailymost
ofpeoplealwaysexpectoutsidesupportalwaysand
they have dependency mentality and the war was
one bad effect for this result. Even one family has many cattle and they collect dairy
fromthecattleandtheyusefirewoodtoboilthedairy.


HELPO could able to implement model


program in Muthu Thambi School Jaffna
with the support of UNDP Jaffna Office.
Through this program we construct biogas
unit inside of the School and stop the fire
wood using of the school because one week
theyspentmuchfirewood.Thenextphaseis
toexpandtheprogramtomanyplacesofthe
Jaffnaasasustainableenergysource.Mostof
Schools are providing the meals to the
students. We have constructed the biogas
unitandexpecttoconducttheawarenessprogramstotheschoolchildren,teachersand
parents.



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GoldenmomentsfromHistory


MonaragalaPrisonBiogas


Thisprisonwontheproductivityawardbecauseeverythingis
well organized. The prison had a problem of waste and fire
woodbecausetheyusedfirewoodasanenergysource.They
needed a sustainable solution to waste problem. With the
support of UNEP / NCPC and HELPO implemented biogas
programwithusingtheoutsideagriculturewaste.


Now the waste became a


resource for them. The
firewood usage stopped
now and prison has been
OpeningofBiogas moved to environment
friendlyenergysource.They
can earn money from reducing the cost for energy.
The impact of the program is huge because many
government institutions were requested the biogas
units for their premises. The policy has been changed about the biogas because early
timetheywerethinkingaboutbiogasisafaulttechnologyandcan’timplementproper
way.

PanaduraHospitalBiogas


“Panadura is the most populated city of the


“Kaluthara District” the population amount is
163,492. – (Population by D.S. Division and sex,
Census 2001) this city is closed to Colombo and
manypeopleliveinhereandthiscommercialarea.
Thecityhasbeenspreadoutwithin44sqkm.


Hospitalwassufferingfromahugewasteproblem.
The hospital has very little space and that is not
enough for dumping the waste. Some patients were badly affected by waste and the
hospital had to expend much money for the medicine too. The hospital was not a
proper place for the patients and for the environment too. With the support of AISA
ONLUS and HELPO implemented biogas program and waste management program
insideofthehospital.NowhospitalcouldabletosaveRs.25,000fromreducingtheLP
Gas.Nowwasteisaresourceforthem.

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New experiment of Biogas Technology

HELP-O has enough experience about constructing


biogas units in various sizes and various places.
Many people don’t have enough space to construct
biogas unit and they needed simple and effective
unit for house hold level. The main thing was that
should be portable one and low cost.
Past few years we had done many experiments but
that was not 100% successful because we needed to
construct portable biogas unit for the house hold
level. With the support of UNDP / SGP / GEF Program we could able to make a
portable biogas unit in “Sahana Resturant”. The capacity of the biogas unit is 6m3 and
they use the biogas now.
The can use the biogas more than 02 hours day.
They have involved to this as experiment level and
that was success. The restaurant has converted an
environment friendly energy source. HELP-O
expects to introduce this portable biogas unit for
other places because easy to install and cost is low.
We have many requests for the domestic biogas
units so in nearly we introduce this to them.

HELP-O People’s Movement Programs




HELPOpeople’smovementisimplementingfinancial&othersocialserviceprograms
forthebettermentofthegrassrootlevelcommunityofthesociety.Wehaveestablished
Community Base Organizations invillagelevelthroughfullyparticipatory process by
giving leadership to village community. In every week they conduct their group
meetings&dotheirregularsavingsonthistime.Thefinancialneedsofthemalsobeing
discussedinthistime&theygetmediumsizeofloanstodeveloptheirlifesituationsas
wellastheirselfemploymentsalso.


From here we going to tell you about the programs which were the activities done in
month of November 2010 with the active participation of the grass root level
community.Thisisoneofplatformforthepeoplewhodon’thaveaplatformtodiscuss
abouttheirproblemsandthroughthiscommunityplatformpeoplecouldabletogetthe
leadershipandcontributetheirskillsandstrengthtotheirfamilies.




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People’sMovement&Community

Housing&LivelihoodDevelopmentPeople’s
Movement is designed specially with the
hope to provide financial & other social
facilities for urban & rural areas in the
country especially in Southern part of the
country.


Communityoftheseallwhoarethemembers
ofpeople’smovementnowhaveastrongnetworkamongthevillagesaswellaswith
inallthebranchesofthemovementalso.Nowallofthemaretakingpartofthesocial
works & through this people’s movement they are taking advantages to get medium
sizeofloansfortheirfinancialneedsalso.98%ofthemembershipiswomennowthey
came out from the kitchen they gettheresponsibleto
uplifttheirfamily.Thepeople’smovementwasagood
platform for the people who didn’t have voice and
platform. Through this they could able to develop
theirskillsandpresentlytoo.
Throughthisnetworkespeciallywomenareempower
takeleadershipintheirvillagestohelpeachother&to
organize themselves for the purpose of development
towards the success. Now they don’t want to go the local money lender because they
canfindfinancialsupportveryeasywaythroughthepeoplemovementbranch.Inthis
way now they have build themselves strongly to face financial & non financial
situationsinfriendlywayalonewiththeirpeople’smovement

The Financial support for the community

WithinthemonthofNovemberwehavedoneloaninspectionforKalupe,Malawanna,
&Eththiligodabranches&allfinancialrequestswereselectedfirstlythroughthegroup
& branch discussions of their village organizations. The loan inspections has done for
all requirements & then we have finalize 20 beneficiaries to disburse Rs.500,000.00
amongthemforvariouspurposessuchasfishselling,retailbusiness,sewing,etc.

ThesepeoplegetmediumsizeofloansfromRs.10,000.00toRs.35,000.00inthistimeas
per their paying capacity as well as business needs & etc. Through the financial
assistanceofNationalDevelopmentTrustFund(NDTF)HELPOPeople’smovementis
goingtodisbursethisloanforthecommunitywithinthemonthofDecember.


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AshelterfortheHomelessPeopleofGalle….

SriLankangrassrootlevelpeoplearesuffering
withoutshelterandthepossibilitytogetaloan
fromabankisverydifficulty.Wewerelooking
a sustainable solution for the problem on that
timeACHRThailandACCAProgram“300 city
developmentconcepts”startedtoimplementfor
Asian Countries. People’s Movement got an
opportunity to involve this program in large
scale.
The program is
integrated program with People’s movement,
Sewanatha&GalleMunicipalCouncilwiththeideaof
to develop low income settlements in Galle Municipal
area & remove all slums from Galle city, through
providing them many financial & other facilities.
People’s Movement, Sewanatha, CLAPNET & Galle
Municipal Council have designed a city development
committeealreadytoapprove&discussthemainitems
onthisprogram.


The project has designed to improve the living condition of all the grass root level
community&themainobjectiveoftheprogramare

¾ Toconstructtheroads,grangesystems&findasustainablesolutionfortheflood
disaster
¾ To make a proper system to get the ownership of lands through the city
developmentcommittee
¾ To improve the infrastructure facility of the community & make a process to get
puredrinkingwaterforall
¾ Improvetheincomegeneratingactivitiesofthecommunitybygivingthefinancial
&otherassistancesforthem
¾ To provide financial support for  housing needs for all the people’s movement
members
ThroughtheSWOTanalyzingprocessweassesthecommunityabilitiestoreachthese
objectiveswithinthese20112015timeperiod&madethestrategyplanforyearwiseas
per the objectives. The Sewanatha officers, HELPO MF officers, People’s movement
leadersaswellasothervillagecommunitymembersparticipatedforthatprogram.



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AGreatOpportunityforourVillageLeaders

OnthemonthofOctober2010fiveleadersofourvillagebranchesgottheopportunity
to participate in a training program of Clap Net in Colombo. All the village leaders
weremuchhappyabouttheprogram&theysaidthattheyweremuchfurnishedabout
thecommunitydevelopmentmethodologythroughthatprogram.
Especiallytheywerefurnishedinbelowareassuchas

¾ Participatoryapproachforcommunityworks
¾ ImportantofCommunication&networkeachother
¾ Communitysustainabledevelopment&mobilizationtools
¾ Rule’s&responsibilitiesofgoodtrainer,communityworker

They able to improve their knowledge especially in community development side
throughthistraining &astheyareworkingvoluntarywithcommunityitwasagreat
opportunityforthem.Furthermoretheyexplainoneverymonthlypeople’smovement
meetings they are expecting to share their knowledge with other community leaders
also. 

AGroundlevelsocialbenefit
M. Hemanthi Priyangani is the treasure of Pubudu
GroupofWalawwaththabranchfromyear2007aswell
assheismotherofthreechildren.Frommanytimeshe
hadtheideaoftobuildanownhouseforthem&now
isveryhappyasshecouldabletocomeherdreamtrue
through this Small group concept. Now she is paying
hersecondloanofRs.50,000.00inmonthlybasis&up
tonowshehasRs.15,000.00inhersavingsbooks.After
analyzing her repayment capacity, attendance to meetings as well as other things her
group & Walawwaththa other members recommended her loan, though she didn’t
obtainforothermediumsizeloansearlier.


Specialty of this loan is that this loan has disbursed alone with the Walawwaththa
People’sbranch&thisisthe5thloanwhichhasdisbursedforhousingneedsfromtheir
branch. Now the branch is reaching sustainability in this way as they have financial
abilityfromtheirmember’ssavingsalso.Furthermoresheexpressedtheideathatshe
love this people’s movement for ever & try to give contribution for all needs of the
movementasitprovideassistanceforthemembersfinancial&otherneedsalso.


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CommunitydrivenDevelopmentProgramIndia


During this month one of HELPO officer got a


chance to participate to the Community Driven
Development Program in India. This is a good
opportunity to develop the skills and make
stronger the community driven development
works of
the
organizati
on.


Course Goal is to increase the level of


understandingoftheparticipantsoncommunity
developmentconceptsandfamiliarizethemwith
variousapproachesandtoolsthatcanbeapplied
intheprocessofempoweringthecommunity.



CourseObjectivesare


™ Impartingknowledge:Forabetterunderstandingofsustainabledevelopment.
™ Tofamiliarizeoneselfonvariousapproachesofcommunitydrivendevelopment.
™ Developing abilities and tools: To familiarize oneself with community driven
communityorganizationtools.
™ Enhancing values and change of attitudes: To enhance one’s understanding of
andrespectforlocalcommunitiesandtheirinherentcapacitiestoworkfortheir
owndevelopment.
Thetopicsareawareanddevelopunderthisprogram
™ Culture&Development ™ ConflictResolution
™ SustainableDevelopment ™ Strategic planning and
™ AppreciativeInquiry Monitoring
™ AssetBasedCommunity ™ Resultbasemanagement
™ Development(ABCD) ™ GenderandChildLabour
™ ParticipatoryDevelopment ™ Developmentcommunication

Those topics are few of main topic that discuss and train. This is a very good and
important program to develop the community based development sector. Balavikasa
PeopleDevelopmentTrainingCenterisorganizingthisprogram.


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MakuluwaPeople’sMovementBranchOpening……….

Makuluwa is a village situated near the
Galle City Municipal area. Most of the
community in that village area doesn’t
have much good financial situation as
they are depend only day today work
specially fishing, Selling Vegetables &
otherretailbusiness.
Withthegreatideatogivethemahelping
hand for their needs our People’s
movementbranchhasestablishedwithin
this month, by giving the leadership for
villagecommunity.ThespecialtyofthisMakulawabranchisallthemembersarefrom
Muslimcommunity.
The founder of HELPO People’s movement
Mr.ChaturaWelivitiya,TheExecutivedirector
of HELPO Mrs. K.K. Abewickrama, The legal
adviser of HELPO, MF staff of HELPO Our
people’s movement community leaders also
participatedforthatoccasion.
AlloftheMakuluwapeople’sbranchmembers
expressed their ideas that now they have a
great strength through this net work to
organize them selves for to stand for their
needs. Finally they said now they have a great hope to go straight with the People’s
Movementtowardsthesuccessofalltheirvillages……..


Human & Environment Links Progressive Organization (HELP-O)


No.364/18 A, Samagi Mawatha,
Dangedara,
Galle.
T.P - +94-91-2226818 / +94-91- 4380121
E-mail – helpogn@wow.lk
URL – www.helpo-srilanka.org

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