A Medical Camp for the residents of the Noracholai and Alankudah camps was successfully conducted at the Alankudah Muslim Vidyalaya on 23rd February 2008.

On a request made by SCOPP, the Golden Key Eye & ENT Hospital at Rajagiriya made available the services of four general physicians and four Eye & ENT specialists and also met their transportation and accommodation costs.  The CEO and the Marketing Manager of the Golden Key Hospital were personally present on the occasion.

The drugs to treat the patients were made available, free of charge, by the Health Minister based on a list provided by the doctors themselves. Preparations for the camp at the venue were handled by officials of the Ministry of Resettlement. The Ministry also provided lunch and refreshments Announcements about the medical camp were made through amplifiers and at mosques.

On the first day, the general medical camp commenced at 9.00 a.m. and during the course of the day, a total 1650 patients were examined and treatment provided. 420 patients were examined by the Eye and ENT specialists.  The camp concluded for the day at 5.00 p.m. but there were a large number of patients waiting in queue to seek treatment.  They were examined by the doctors the next day (24th Sunday) until 12.00 noon.

Alankudah has four main camps, housing 2,700 families.  Of this number, 2,400 are displaced families.  They have been living as IDPs over the past 18 years. The youth have been born and bred in this area.

About 50% of the inmates of the camps have bought plots of land using their own resources or with the help of relatives. They are being provided a sum of Rs.250,000 each to build a house. The remaining 50% of the inmates continue to live on state land from the day they came there as refugees 18 years ago. They are requesting that the land be permanently alienated to them since an entire generation consider Alankudah their home.

There are 68 teachers attached to the Alankudah School; 26 of them, who are children of IDPs, have been recruited on a temporary basis   There are a total of 500 such teachers in the camps housing the Wanni IDPs. 360 of them have been selected for permanent appointment and the Ministry if making arrangements to give them the appointments.

11 children of IDP families from the Alankudah Vidyalaya and 01 student from the Noracholai Vidyalaya have been selected this year for University admission. Three of these children have lost their fathers. Overall, these children do not have the means to pursue higher education. Each student needs around Rs.6,000/00 per month if they are to graduate.  SCOPP will coordinate in obtaining sponsorship to enable these students continue their higher education.

On the 24th morning SCOPP organized a special meeting chaired by the School Principal for young men and women.  More than 300 educated youths living in the camps attended the meeting and engaged in a discussion of various issues faced by them.  Arrangements were made on the occasion to bring group them together. These youths have decided to look into education, livelihood, health and other issues of the IDPs and work in coordination with SCOPP to resolve them.

It was gratifying to see 02 of the doctors conducting the medical camp were from the Wanni who had passed out as doctors after studying in Colombo. Moved by the suffering of their people and encouraged by the response received for the medical camp organized by SCOPP, they offered to make available the services of 20 doctors and to meet their expenses to conduct medical camps monthly or once in two months for the more than 100,000 Wanni IDPs. They appealed to SCOPP to only make available the drugs. The Golden Key Hospital agreed to continue supporting this initiative and to distribute spectacles free of charge to the needy. Hon. Minister of Health has given his consent to support this worthy cause.

Local doctors, school principal, the bank manager, youths and several others along with the Ministry officials volunteered to help and as a result, SCOPP was able to successfully conduct this community service project, earning the appreciation of the residents of the IDP camps. It also paved the way for SCOPP to engage in more social services activities to contribute its share in ameliorating the conditions of the IDPs.