Manure proves useful for poor Sri Lankan village

Poor fishing community produces chemical free fertilizer as an alternative source of income.

A worker bags powdered cow dung in Kuchchaveli village, northeastern Sri Lanka. The manure is sold as organic chemical free fertilizer in Colombo. (Photo by ucanews.com)

Colombo:  The northeastern fishing village of Kuchchaveli is one of the poorest in an area that suffered badly during Sri Lanka's 26-year-long civil war.

What once was a predominantly Catholic village is now a place with a church but no Catholics. During the war all Catholics either left for neighboring India or fled south, leaving the church and village to the jungle.

When fighting ceased in 2009, Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims resettled the village but none of the original Catholics returned.

A few years ago, Father Jesu Ramesh, from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, was appointed to reopen the church, which was by then covered with jungle and inhabited by snakes.

With help from police and navy personnel, Father Ramesh cleared the jungle from the church and its grounds.

Minor renovations were done with the support of his Oblate congregation.

"There was no place for me to live but I occupied the sacristan's room and started my mission to serve a parish which had no single parishioner," said Father Ramesh.

The priest quickly learned how impoverished the villagers were and how they solely relied on fishing to make a living.

"But from August to January, the monsoon's heavy rain, winds and rough sea, makes fishing impossible," said Father Ramesh.

"During the monsoon a few villagers have land to do some agriculture but even that is affected by wild elephants, which roam the village to eat Palmyra palm fruits," he said.

Last August a group from Oblates Missions, the charity and social service arm of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, visited the area with the aim of supporting Father Ramesh.

"The group was touched by the depth of poverty suffered by the people and the parents were pleading with them to support their children with some jobs," said Pat Benedict, a lay coordinator for Oblate Missions.

Father Sriyan Ranasinghe, the director of Oblates Missions, saw a large amount of cow dung on the roads around the village and suggested the idea of selling it in the capital Colombo which is 320 kilometers away.

"We had no way of finding them jobs but we found a God-given resource," Benedict said.

Benedict said that villagers were requested to collect cow dung, dry it and then turn it into powder, making it an organic chemical-free fertilizer. They then gave the fertilizer to Father Ramesh who transported it in bags to Colombo via train.

"We sold it in the city with the support of another Catholic charismatic revival movement, the Community of the Risen Lord," said Benedict.

"The fertilizer project was also about bridging the North and South and showing our love to our brothers and sisters in the North and East," she said.

"It is not only the Catholics who are involved in this project but also Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims," she said.

A number of people who had also lost limbs in the war are also involved in the project.

Father Ranasinghe said the Oblate Missions bought equipment such as weighing scales and bagging gear to assist the project.

Source: UCAN