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Neil: I'm here in a place called Odddusuddan, which is in the Vanni, northern Sri Lanka.
It's a very special day, today, for these people who are returning after many, many months
in IDP camps and some of them, previous to that, more than two years of repeated displacement
in the conflict, which has now finally finished here in northern Sri Lanka.
Michele: The International Organisation for Migration, in the north of Sri Lanka has been
active for quite some time. Specifically in these last phases of the conflict and with
the outflux of IDPs which, started in the beginning of 2009 has been present and active
with DFID funding in supporting the internally displaced camps, which at one point housed
up to 300,000 IDPs.
Neil: One of the things we funded with IOM is to enable returns and to help these people
come back to their home areas, in a dignified and a safe way.
As you can see people coming behind me, they've brought what they can and each of them will
receive the same package, for each household, so each household will receive a food ration
for six months, from the World Food Programme. Each household will receive a shelter kit
from IOM, which is partly funded by DFID and each family will also receive a cash grant
of 250,000 rupees, that's about 250 dollars, to get them started, for use of shelter or
for other things that they may need.
Michele: So the people arrive here, and into this transit site, so in this case it's a
school. They stay here for three days. In the meantime IOM assists, as I previously
said, with basic health. We have an IOM ambulance here, which is also funded by DFID. So you
know, we hope that our partnerships with all our donors, especially with DFID, will continue,
and that we continue bringing people back to their place of origin, where they can start
up a life, again, finally after 30 years of war, free of conflict and under better conditions.
Neil: For these people, you know, this is not the end of their journey, this is just
the beginning of the end really. They will have their journey to their homes, then quite
a struggle ahead of them to regain their lives and livelihoods but every single one of them,
you can see behind me, for all they've gone through, they're extremely happy to be almost
home and on the final stage of their journey.
To find out more about how the uk is helping in Sri Lanka, please visit: www.dfid.gov.uk/srilanka www.ukinsrilanka.fco.gov.uk