Suicide Prevention Project

Sri Lanka has been one of the top ten countries in the world in terms of the incidence of suicides according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) during the last twenty years. When Sri Lanka wasone in the world fifteen years ago Tanamalwila Divisional Secretary’s Division happened to be the number one place in the country for suicides, thus making itself the highest concentration of suicides in the world. It was at this point Arthacharya decided to expand its programme to Tanamalwilaeven non-governmental operations were very weak.In a situation where the medical authoritiesnot recognized suicides in the dry zone as a social problem they lack any special strategy to tackle it though it has reached extremely high proportions. With only one other NGO active in the field this serious problem remains almost totally unattended by the health authorities from a prevention perspective. Arthacharya’s strategy is to develop a participatory preventive model involving all the relevant stakeholders.The ongoing activities include current reality audits, institution building, group interactions, and identification of suicide candidates, counseling and mobilization programmes for them and training for all the stakeholders. Project is currently funded by the Cordaid and Egbert Hendriks Foundation in the Netherlands and guided and trained by psychologists Joke van Meerten and Joany Spearings.