Principal Investigator
Contact
Chamindra Weerackody
64, Horton Place Colombo 7, Sri Lanka
Tel: 94-11-2695481/ 94-11-2669206
Fax: 94-11-2688368
chamindra [at] wow.lk (Email)
The Sri Lankan team is lead by Chamindra Weerackody, an independent consultant affiliated with INASIA-PRDA. Since April 2005, he has been the local coordinator and researcher on a study of the interface between international aid agencies and local political administrative and civil society institutions and its impact on tsunami affected communities, funded by the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Consultant
Suman Fernando
Contact
sumanfernando [at] btinternet.com
20 Burghley Road, Kentish Town
London, NW5 1UE, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 7485 9122
Fax: +44 20 7 267 7405
Areas of Expertise
Transcultural psychiatry, service provision in mental health and social care, racism in mental health service provision
Profile
Suman Fernando, Honorary Senior Lecturer in Mental Health, European Centre for the Study of Migration and Social Care (MASC), University of Kent (UK), and Visiting Professor in the Department of Social Sciences, London Metropolitan University, London (UK), will be acting as consultant to the LK research team and to the GHRI-TC Team Grant as a whole. He is a psychiatrist and author of books on ‘race’ and cultural diversity. He has extensive clinical experience in National Health Service in UK, as well as experience in NGOs in UK and Sri Lanka. He is interested in matters to do with legal safeguards for users of mental health services in the UK and is involved in lobbying for changes in mental health service provision.
Collaborators
Teams Members, from left to right: Ananda Galappatti, Shanthi Fernando, Harini Amarasuriya and Suman Fernando.
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Shanti Fernando, Chairperson and Chief Executive of PRDA, will join as a key member of the team and project manager. In addition, Mrs. Fernando is Chief Operating Officer of the Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA).
Harini Amarasuriya (Social Anthropologist), Gameela Samarasinghe (Psychologist) and Ananda Galappatti (Medical Anthropologist) based at SPARC are also key members of the Sri Lankan Team.
Organizations
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- The Initiative in Research and Education for Development in Asia (INASIA) is a research and action NGO founded in 1993. INASIA works in tandem with its sister organization - (PRDA) which is another NGO founded earlier in 1989. While INASIA constitutes the research arm, PRDA functions as the action oriented grassroots organisation;
- The Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA) established as a Special Agency responsible for overseeing rehabilitation and development following the tsunami and directly responsible to the President of Sri Lanka. The remit of RADA is to bring about inter-agency co-ordination and oversee work across the country in the field of health, education, social services, livelihood & shelter, rehabilitation and reconstruction. Existing linkages with the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights – a government ministry formed after the tsunami -- would enable the project team to influence policy developments. RADA is the only agency or institution in Sri Lanka with the mandate to continue with the reconstruction and development work in districts affected by natural or armed conflict. These links will undoubtedly be crucial in enabling the results of the project to feed into policy-making in the psychosocial field and promoting capacity building of local institutions in this field.;
- is composed of psychologists and social scientists affiliated with the University of Colombo who conduct research, offer courses for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and develop mental health training programs for probation and child-care staff. SPARC is currently engaged in a UNFPA-funded research project on Psychosocial Assessment of Development and Humanitarian Interventions (PADHI), highly relevant to this program;
- European Centre for the Study of Migration and Social Care (MASC), University of Kent (UK)
- Department of Social Sciences, London Metropolitan University, London (UK)
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