Our research
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The Trauma & Global Health Program’s Sri Lankan team is conducting a series of qualitative studies on the following research areas:
- Exploring the experiences of communities, families and individuals affected by (a) civil conflict in the North; (b) civil conflict and the tsunami in the East; (c) the tsunami in the South; and (d) internal displacement resulting from being driven out of the North during the conflict and now living in the West. The research uses Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) (Chambers, 1983, 1997) methodology, including focus groups and individual interviews, in exploring perceived needs; barriers to access services; availability of services at the time of most need, and perceptions of the help received/available by humanitarian and governmental interventions.
- The research concentrates on psychosocial needs and methods of psychosocial intervention used during and after conflict and/or tsunami, focusing on:
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- The nature and gender distribution of individual and collective interventions received during and after conflict and/or tsunami
- The usefulness of interventions as perceived by key-informants and women caregivers
- The training needs that may help the caregivers and their organizations.
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Where we work
A total of four communities have been selected as study sites:
- Hambantota area (South) affected by tsunami, but not by the ethnic conflict and composed of both Sinhala and Muslim people
- Jaffna area (North) affected by conflict and only partially affected by tsunami and composed of predominantly Tamil people
- Batticaloa area (East) affected by tsunami and conflict and composed of Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim communities
- Puttalam area (Northwest) not affected by tsunami but affected by conflict in North and East by having internally displaced people living there, population now composed of Sinhala people largely (not affected directly by conflict) as well as internally displaced from Jaffna who are mostly Muslims
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