Sleep deprived village in Matara

Colombo (News 1st): In our journey across the country, giving a voice to the voiceless, our Gammadda team came across a village that is sleep-deprived as a result of the human-elephant conflict. When the sun goes down and stars come out the villagers in Saliyapura can only shut their eyes for 2 hours. The rest of the night, the villagers have to protect their crops from the elephants. When the sun melts down into the horizon and darkness sets in, the men of the village are on makeshift tents up on trees protecting their cultivations. While the women sit outside their houses protecting their families. While the children try to fall asleep while chanting mantras to keep away the elephants. Explosives are the only thing villagers have as protection against these masquerading beasts. But the elephants who devour anything and everything in the village are immune to explosives as well.

Dabe, Monaragala

The scarcity of water has turned the cultivation lands in the village of Dabe in Monaragala has now turned into barren lands. Even though the Dabe tank is in the vicinity of the village, it cannot be utilized by the villagers because there is no water stream flowing out of the tank. As a result of this, the villagers have given up more than 300 acres of cultivation and live in destitute.

Aadi Amman Keni, Trincomalee

The Gammadda team met children from the Aadi Amman Keni village in Trincomalee. They have to walk 3 km every day to attend school. The Gammadda team gave them a lift to school. Even though they travelled to school in a van today, they have embarked on the long and tiring walk tomorrow once again. These children have placed their trust on their legs to carry them to school every day because the politicians continue to break their promises of providing means of transportation for these children. These children face a lot of hardship to attend a school that has a population of 45 students. The children see no difference in their homes and their school. Because in both places they face a lot of hardships.

Mawategama, Badulla

If a flyover is not built over the railway crossing in Mawategama in Badulla it is inevitable that the population in the village will decrease at an alarming rate. The villagers travel to Hali-Ela through this railway crossing. They held a ceremony to build a flyover at this location. They even dug holes. The holes they dug remain, with no flyover insight.