Irish University Supports Ahavoli Family Centre, Sri Lanka
On podium
In May 2005 the Oblate Mission Development Office received a cheque for ?44,500 from Irish Missionary Resource Services. IMRS is the conduit for Irish Government overseas development aid to the missionary congregations, and this was our first successful application.
That in itself was gratifying but even more so was the cause for which the money was given ? one very dear to our hearts. It was for the Ahavoli Family Centre in Jaffna, a city in the north of Sri Lanka, in Tamil Tiger country. Sri Lanka has a north/south divide that has erupted to an extent that makes the ?troubles? in Ireland look mild.
More that twenty years of civil war have left 70,000 dead and 800,000 displaced. Homes, businesses, farms and churches have been destroyed and infrastructure extensively damaged.
Sadly, the ceasefire of 2002 has ended in renewed bitter fighting.
As if that were not enough, the St. Stephen?s Day tsunami devastated the coastal region to the south of Jaffna, leaving at least 10,000 dead and many more homeless and injured.
In the original application the Ahavoli Family Centre requested funding to train community activists, leaders and, above all, counsellors to help a people traumatised by war. Later, in the wake of the tsunami, the need for counselling increased dramatically.
Galway City on Ireland's west coast is a long way from Jaffna, but when Galway University was asked to affiliate the counsellor training programme to the university, the result was a burst of academic energy and help. NUI Galway studied syllabuses, reviewed tutors and academic qualifications, mailed books and CDs, ran seminars and, crucially, sent out their own experts to advise.
Fr. Rajanayagam, a diocesan priest, is director of this Oblate sponsored centre. Five of the nine key personnel are Oblates. This office played what we call ?email tennis? for a long time with Fr. Raja until we got all the facts we needed for this successful funding application.
The presence at the Centre?s first conferring ceremony of Dr Seamus MacMathuna, Secretary for Academic Affairs at NUI-Galway, and Mr Seamus O?Grady, the University?s Director of Adult and Continuing Education, was a powerful symbol of one small island?s willingness to reach out to another small and troubled island, and the readiness of a university to look well beyond its own campus.
Diplomas in Psychology of Counselling were conferred on 52 students.