The Vanni (also Wanni) district stretches across northern Sri Lanka, a tropical island just southeast of India. It is the place where a 26-yr civil war was waged at great cost to its local people, literally and figuratively caught in the crossfire.
Ichchankulam, Vavuniya is in the Vanni. Once a beautiful spot, during the conflict it became a place where people lost limbs, land and livestock. Families were dispersed into camps and children were often conscripted or killed.
Some survivors eventually returned to find their dwellings razed, water contaminated and landmines littering their fields.
Today, it is a place where young widows struggle to raise families in a patriarchal culture.
Via Village is the story of their successful effort to generate a good economic alternative for themselves.
