Assist Resettlement & Renaissance (Assist RR) has been formed to relieve poverty of innocent victims of war in Sri Lanka by improving their livelihood. They were originally displaced during the final phase of the civil war and spent a number of years in various refugee camps / welfare centers. They have been facing extreme hardship after they were resettled in their villages. People were being housed in temporary shelters without water and toilet facilities and are living on rare hand-outs without any work or job opportunities. Children are learning in temporary shelters, which have been leaking during rain.
Assist RR aims to provide assistance to improve the health care of people affected by the war. This would include helping elderly patients with their eye problems including conducting eye clinics, providing reading glasses, free cataract operations, conducting cardiology clinics, providing medical equipment, etc. AssistRR would like to assist the learning process of children by providing assistance to school children. Although food is necessary, learning is also very important, as it would help them to improve their standard of living in the future and to relieve their poverty.
Assist RR has implemented many livelihood support projects in the east and north of Sri Lanka including 320 shelters and 161 toilets to Sampoor IDPs, who were being resettled after 9 years of displacement. Many thousands of families are still living in basic temporary leaking shelters. AssistRR would like to provide safe and acceptable shelters to at least some of these families. AssistRR also would like to provide livelihood support by providing the tools they need, including fishing equipment.