A house for a daughter? Constraints and opportunities in post-tsunami Eastern Sri Lanka

Abstract

The tsunami of December 2004 caused massive human suffering and physical destruction. In its aftermath, images of helpless victims dominated public opinion and contributed to the generation of resources for the reconstruction of the affected areas. Critics soon pointed to another tsunami, this time in the form of global aid sweeping away local capacities. However valid these objections, they paid little attention to the ways in which the recipient women and men made use of the aid in both strategic and more subtle forms of self-positioning. This article aims at a contextualized description of post-tsunami processes and asks how external interventions interacted with local agendas. Gender relationships in particular are seen as informing both intervention models and local coping processes, and of being themselves in constant transformation within a wider frame of social change.

Disasters and the diminishing of women's economic empowerment

“…Black women in the US are disproportionately represented among the poor and the disadvantaged, and after Hurricane Katrina, faced difficulty in overcoming bureaucratic obstacles associated with aid disbursement and recovery assistance, while simultaneously managing childcare employment (Tobin-Gurley, Peek, and Loomis, 2010). Men tend to enjoy the easiest access to cash through aid programmes, as in many countries, women are systematically excluded from receiving government disbursements (Enarson and Morrow, 1998;Fothergill, 1996;Thurnheer, 2009;Luna and Hilhorst, 2022). In addition, some aid programmes involve training in tradecraft, but they target men to receive training in traditionally maledominated trades like carpentry or masonry (Cupples, 2007).…”

Role of local actors in WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) during disaster recovery: policy implications from evidence in Odisha, India

“…Women are often categorised as individuals vulnerable to disasters (McEntire, 2012), although evidence from post-tsunami Eastern Sri Lanka indicates that pre-existing gender relationships, entitlements, networks with local NGOs, and relationships with local authorities distributing post-disaster aid have positively influenced gendered recovery (Thurnheer, 2009). Sanyal and Routray (2016) found that women, acting as part of self-help groups (SHGs), were instrumental in empowering each other, bringing other women in the community closer, aiding cash flow with bank linkages and internal lending, as well as information flow through their networks.…”

Relating to the Sea: Enlivening the Ocean as an Actor in Eastern Sri Lanka

“…The materiality of the tsunami was certainly not lost on the people who experienced it. Fisherfolk, living in proximity to the sea, were the most heavily affected by the tsunami (Thurnheer, 2009); nearly everyone in Batticaloa I spoke with had lost a loved one. Here I turn my focus to the intimate, to what people reported of this most trying of times.…”