Sri Lanka
Decades of violent conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government ended in victory for the government forces in May 2009. But the wounds are not yet healed.
Many on both sides of the civil war have been left with physical disabilities or emotionally traumatised. Families returning after years in displacement camps find their homes destroyed, their possessions looted, and their painstakingly cleared farmland swallowed back up by nature.
Suffering is by no means confined to the former war zone. The country’s entire economy was severely damaged, and its official classification as lower middle income masks huge inequalities. Half the population lives below the poverty line, and the previously high level state support for education, health and other social services has been steadily cut down.
Through our partner Caritas Sri Lanka we are helping war-affected families, particularly in the north and east, to rebuild their homes and their lives. We also work with other partners around the country to promote social cohesion between different ethnic and religious groups, and support them to work together to find solutions to the underlying problems that fuelled the conflict.
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![Fishermen celebrate at the end of the protest [NAFSO]](/var/storage/images/about-us/where-we-work/sri-lanka/images/sri-lanka-fishermen2/1326098-1-eng-GB/sri-lanka-fishermen_0column75_06space_landscape.jpg) | Sri Lanka: fishworkers block unwanted tourism project More than 8,000 people living around Negombo Lagoon in Sri Lanka protested on 17 November 2010 against a potentially devastating tourism project |
![Young Tamil boys stand with other civilians behind a barbed-wire fence in the Menikfam Vanni refugee camp located near the town of Chettekulam in northern Sri Lanka April 29, 2009 [REUTERS/Stringer, courtesy alertnet.org]](/var/storage/images/emergencies/sri-lanka-2009-05-19/refugee-camp/1045604-1-eng-GB/refugee-camp_0column75_06space_landscape.jpg) | Sri Lanka: Bishops say all must be allowed home Bishop John Rawsthorne of Sheffield and Bishop John Arnold of Westminster call for Tamils displaced by civil war to be allowed to return home after visiting camps in Sri Lanka |
| Sri Lanka: victory in sea plane protests January 2011: Fishworkers around Negombo Lagoon in Sri Lanka have received good news about the controversial tourism project which they’ve been protesting against since October |
