The Potters of Thalaluvilla

15 December 2005

The sea water spared their homes, but it destroyed kiln ovens, pottery wheels, storage racks and other tools of their trade. Worse yet, the water ruined the local supply of raw material: High salt content in clay makes for brittle pots, and nobody wanted to buy products that couldn’t stand the rigors of daily use.

38-year-old GJ Sumathipala, whose father and father before him were also clay-pot makers, said: “We couldn’t sell our products. Our average income dropped from around 400 rupees (US$4) a day to less than 100 rupees.” As manual laborers, the group belonged to the Verala caste, one of the lowest in Sri Lanka’s social hierarchy. As a result of this, as neighbors received assistance, the potters stood on the sidelines and didn’t draw attention to their own plight.

Sumathipala, a father of three, said: “It was as if people didn’t see that we, too, needed help. It wasn’t fair, but we thought there was little we could do.” And so it was a good thing that NGOs, including CARE, finally noticed the marginalized group and started asking why they were in such dire straits.

The first steps toward a solution involved making sure that government officials know about the potters’ plight. Then there was the need to make sure that the local community understood the need to help the 13 families.

CARE’s efforts met some resistance. For instance, a local moneylender, upon whose high-interest, short-term loans Sumathipala and his friends had come to rely for survival, didn’t want good customers breaking the chain of dependence.

A tractor owner, whose vehicle the potters rent at exorbitant prices to use to transport goods, feared that aid agencies would provide them with alternate access to market, and therefore cause a loss of income to him. He wrote threatening letters, including to CARE’s local office, demanding a stop to any assistance to the potters.

Despite the objections, however, CARE’s staffers pushed ahead and secured permission from the government to work with this marginalized community. After several meetings, the agency also got the village leaders’ support.

CARE began by trucking in good quality clay from areas that were not hit by the tsunami to replace poor quality raw material that was locally available. Using this fresh clay and whatever tools remained to them, Sumathipala and his friends have been able to make good pots again over the last three months, albeit at lower production rates.

CARE engineers have supplied bricks and timber, so that drying racks could be repaired and damaged kilns fired up once again into action. Recognizing that throwing wheels either were damaged by the tsunami water, or were simply too worn down, CARE placed an order for six new units, costing around 4,000 rupees each. These were delivered in mid November.

“CARE’s help has made a huge difference to our lives,” Sumathipala said.
The tsunami and CARE’s assistance have also triggered a crucial change in the ways in which the potters work. CARE staffer Ruwan said that since the tsunami, the potters are working together more closely than ever, and are more interested in exploring new product lines that could improve their incomes.

He said: “Right now, we’re working with them to explore new types of clay products that they could make, and to modernize their production methods. “We hope that by doing this, CARE can help them to really increase their income levels and improve their lives.”