There are few people who know their way around a Sri Lankan garbage dump as well as Dr.Randika Jayasinghe. However, while you might expect the research scientist to be studying landfill composition or whether toxins are leaching into the groundwater, Randika is actually more interested in talking to the communities in the area. “I look … Continue reading
COLOMBO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Every month, Fathima Rifka used to suffer the embarrassment of rinsing out the rags she used during her period at a public tap – the only source of running water available in the poor Sri Lankan neighborhood she grew up in. “You have to stand in line, and then you … Continue reading
Earl Barthelot loves a good Portuguese Burgher wedding. There is always feasting – keep an eye out for that wild pork curry – and singing and dancing. The women in their flowing, silken gowns, and the men, all trussed up in formal suits, mirror each other’s movements as they dance the Kaffringha, their quick steps … Continue reading
COLOMBO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Lawyers and activists representing a group of Sri Lankan women who were subjected to female genital cutting as children will meet the justice minister on Wednesday to urge a ban on the ritual. The minister called for a meeting after the women spoke out against the tradition which is practiced … Continue reading
Colombo, Sri Lanka – In 2006, a Russell’s viper sank one fang into Sanath Weeraratne’s left hand. Weeraratne immediately started to bleed profusely as the anticoagulant properties in the venom took effect. He knew what could come next: more bleeding from the rectum and the gums and blood-stained vomit. The blood could seep into the … Continue reading
Sri Lankan activists will tell you that the island has a commission culture. In the last 15 years alone, people have stood up and testified before dozens of committees – some, such as the Udalagama Commission, investigating human rights abuses, and others, such as the Mahanama Tilakaratne and Paranagama Commissions, looking into abductions and … Continue reading
Wilpattu, Sri Lanka’s oldest and largest national park, was once a warzone. The fighting between the Sri Lankan state and the militant separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that began in the 1980s had spilled over into these wild lands. Wildlife researchers Anjali Watson and Andrew Kittle remember hearing stories from soldiers stationed … Continue reading
The raucous troupe of monkeys that visit Dr. Jinie Dela’s house in Panadura do not realize how closely they are being studied. Dr.Dela, a biologist, with a doctoral degree in primate ecology and behaviour, treats her sprawling one-acre garden like an enormous, open laboratory. The primates who come visiting, sometimes on a daily basis, have … Continue reading
Sitting among the members of a displaced community in Puttalam a few years ago, Dr. Chesmal Siriwardhana found himself thinking about the ethical problems around health research. To get to this point – where he was able to meet people who had been driven out of their homes by the LTTE, had been displaced for … Continue reading
Puhudiwula, Sri Lanka – In the district of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, Puhudiwula is a village of abandoned wells. Though new and well-built, these wells can be found in every garden, costing around 100,000 rupees ($700) to build. The villagers, however, will not drink or even cook with the water, which they believe is driving … Continue reading
