2018 Montage Awards: Monsoon Journal Interview with Kandiah “Ken” Vivekananthavel of the Canadian Ta

Kandiah “Ken” Vivenkanathavel is the CTHA co-coordinator for community relations. Professionally, He is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) working full-time in the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

Q. What motivating factors led to your founding of the Canadian Tamils Humanitarian Association (CTHA)?

A. I was born and raised in a rural village. I know how difficult the people in my village survive on a day-to-day basis. Most of them were migrant workers, so I know what poor means because I lived with them. Of course, although I did most of my education out of the country in Canada, I knew what was happening back home, the civil war and all those things. So, I waited until the war was ending and once the war ended, I went back to Sri Lanka and visited all the Tamil areas, and I saw the rural and northern places. Most of the places I went to were mostly rural areas, and so I decided that the Western province, Batticaloa, needs the most help. 2015 is when we started our projects. That’s how we came about.

Q. What would you consider to be your specific role at the CTHA currently?

A. The CTHA was formed to bring together young people, the new generation, because I know we, the elderly people, are mostly doing the work as we were born there, raised there, and we know the country. However, with my son and the new generation, they have never been there and don’t know the country well. I thought I would educate them and give them a chance. In this way, they know what’s going and what type of help is needed. That was the motive or reason behind it. All the people in the organization are youngsters like recent graduates, university students, masters students, Grade 12 students or something like that. So, I am trying my best to get them motivated and involved, as once you get involved then of course you take some interest to do it. I give them the freedom in deciding what they want to do and how they want to do it. So pretty much it is a young volunteers organization, even though I am helping or guiding them, it is run entirely by volunteers.

Q. Has the CTHA strengthened the diasporic connections between the Tamil community in Canada and Sri Lanka?

A. The idea is to send some volunteers also back home to see the sites. Very recently we sent a volunteer, a recent graduate, for seven months back home. He has returned in April after working for about six to seven months. He was full time there helping those in need. We look after three preschools in Batticaloa, its about 120 children. And, also, we are also helping some women’s groups, motivating them and giving them some help to start their own businesses. One volunteer was there, and she is back now, where she will tell her friends and the other volunteers what kind of experience she had and how she enjoyed the work. So, our goal is to send volunteers on a regular basis. This way they know what’s happening instead of someone coming and telling them “this is what it is.” They go there, and we arrange all the accommodations and transportation for them to go there to get that experience and return to Canada.

We are also focusing on the child education because we want to put a foundation since most of rural village children don’t go to school. They just go to help with their parents, which is a seasonal thing. If it’s a rainy season, they might stay home, otherwise they will help their parents work the farm, do some fishing, and so now we are encouraging them to attend to school. So, they will have a motivation to continue schooling. Right now, there is a high dropout rate. They do grade 3 and grade 4 and then dropout. We’re motivating them and giving them healthy lunches, so this way one more village can come to school. We also do concerts and sports meet. Additionally, we provide shoes, books and uniforms. In our work with women’s groups, we very recently gave 22 sewing machines for the young girls or single mothers to make their own living. Another project we’re doing is cash crops where in two-to-three years the income will be permanent. This includes helping them with coconut trees, mango trees, cashew plantation, papaya, rum shakes. These are crops that are in demand and be there forever. Instead of giving them a short-term solution they can expand their cultivation.

Q. Is the CTHA looking to expand its projects outside of Batticaloa into other areas in Sri Lanka?

A. No, at this point we want the volunteers to be comfortable. We’re focusing on one area because the funding is also very restricted. We just want to do it properly in one area rather than splitting it into pieces and where the money is not enough. In that sense, whatever we generate we are able to continue and complete the projects.

Q. Have there been any challenges in managing and delivering its humanitarian projects?

A. It’s a communication barrier in the villages. They are not used to reporting back. Everyone wants this or that, but there is not much to give because execution of a project can be a tough challenge. For example, the current building, we do not have skilled labour there. They have come and gone or are working somewhere else, so it’s very hard to get labour there, skilled labour that is, involved in projects. In making a building, these are special trades that include being a specialist in carpentry, masonry, and roofing. That is lacking because with the war over and people trying to rebuild, there is high demand for skilled labour that CTHA doesn’t have. So, with the war’s end, we hope to train people in skills development. Aside from that, there are no other major challenges except for funding itself.

There is only a certain amount you can raise as donations so there is a limitation on funding, but we undertake projects according to our needs. We don’t take too much and then say “we are stopping this project because there is not enough funding.” We do financial planning, see how much we need, intervals based on when we need it, and have been very successful in the past four years as a result. We have done work for about $200,000 in three years.

Q. How does your organization define and measure success in its projects?

A. It’s only the beginning. What we are doing with the preschool children is following them, with our local volunteers to specifically start monitoring their progress from preschool to normal school. And, of course, we will help with their educational needs, but we are not getting involved in everything. We just wanted to follow the children in terms of how they are coming up. It will take some time. It may take five years to see their overall progress. Other than that, we already see results coming up. Once we see the results in two to three years we can see the changes coming. That is another area focused on. People are happy, and we can see the changes.

Q. Has the current post-war environment in Sri Lanka at all influence the type of humanitarian work that the CTHA has facilitated?

A. Most of the people in where we are working, during the struggle, most of the youngsters have gone to war. They have either died or gotten injured. There are more women than men right now. There are only single mothers living there with small children, so survival is tough. The war has really affected them. It is still in their memories and we are not doing counselling, but that may become an area we look at in the future along with motivation for the future. We want to help them focus more so on the future than the past, as the past is the past.

Q. Aside from counselling, are there any other projects or work that this organization will be undertaking in 2018-19?

A. Right now, we just want to work with what we have. As of today, we have three preschools, but by next year we are going to take another four preschools. We will thereby be helping with seven preschools, which is about 300 children. That is quite a bit for us to oversee and also undertake skills training and plantations. We don’t want to get involved in anything where we cannot manage or there may be a limitation in financing, so we’ll see. We are just balancing the budget and going. Although, if there is a budget surplus, it will go into any other project. However, at this point, we desire to stay within our means because that’s the success, right? Do what you can, so this way it can continue and does not frustrate any participants, as the volunteers may be frustrated by money issues.

So far, we have not really struggled when it came to financing, we always had money whenever it was needed. We don’t spend our money here, where we get it from a printing fee and things like that. However, our major sources of funding have been from doing breakfast fundraising, cultural shows from the volunteers, clothing drives, as well as Mother’s Day events, to send back home.

Q. What advice would you give to the Tamil community in Canada and elsewhere outside of Sri Lanka to give back to the country or pursue a career in international development?

A. My advice would be with CTHA adopting a village and taking responsibility to care for some 500 people in the area, I would like various groups to take another village. This way in five to ten years maybe, not five, I would say in ten years they are self-sufficient and can do their own thing. Right now, there are so many villages that need help, so that’s the advice I would say. Go and have a look at it, choose a village, and make sure you have a proper person to execute whatever you want to do. That’s the main thing. The success comes from whoever you have on the other side because if they mess up things, it is not going to work out. You have to find the right people as there are some interlopers who see the money and go, don’t deliver a proper job and no communication. You have to ensure that you can setup a team of people that can execute a project according to the way you instructed.

That’s the thing. You can give money, but you have to ensure that the money is spent properly and goes to the right people. You can’t just suddenly pick up the phone and offer money and not know what it is.

I pretty much go to Sri Lanka once every year. Although I have gone twice these past three years. However, I can’t afford to go there all the time, but my plan is that I will go there once a year to see what is happening. Also, our plan is to send volunteers to live there and get a chance to live with the people; talk to the people and see how we can improve their lives.

Q. So regarding this concern over embezzlement of money by someone managing the project, is there some board of directors or enforcement mechanism to prevent these offenses?

A. Well what CTHA has done is we have a bank account in Toronto. We also have setup a separate bank account for CTHA in Sri Lanka. All the money we sent there is to this specific bank account, no one else’s money goes there, and we can see is if there is a disbursement. We monitor it very vigorously. That’s how we manage it. We want to setup an organization there, but it is costly, so it is on hold at this point. We have a bank account where the money is well accounted for. Also, right now, we are getting the local government officials in Sri Lanka to join with us as partners, so this way they will oversee the money we spend on the preschool and parents. Starting next year, the money will be sent to the association where the parents are on the board and the government officials would ensure money is well spent as caretakers.

Q. Personally, what have you enjoyed about the work in the CTHA?

A. For myself, I am happy that I am helping the poor, which I enjoy more than my regular work. Helping people and bringing volunteers is at least the legacy I am going to leave behind. I have allowed younger people to do things on their own to allow them to see what is happening. I am helping pre-school children learn and continue to have an education. That’s the satisfaction I get.

It is not something like I did today or yesterday. It has been something coming from my childhood because I am from a rural village. Fortunately, we were doing okay, and I used to only help people in whatever way I could. After I came to Canada when the war was on, I was helping the hospitals here through walkathons, fundraisers, and other work that went to either Scarborough General or Stouffville General Hospital. So, we waited for a chance until the war to end. After the war, we started our work.