World Vision Lanka commences drought relief

World Vision Lanka has joined an inter-agency response for the provision of unconditional cash grants to drought-affected communities in Sri Lanka. 

This project is funded by StartFund. World Vison’s intervention covers 750 farmers. It will assist 500 households in Nawagaththegama in the Puttalam District and 250 households in Bibile in the Moneragala District. The investment for these areas is around $ 100,000 (Rs. 15 million). 

The larger project with its four-member consortium of international relief agencies aims to reach 1,700 families in the Moneragala, Puttalam, Batticaloa, Kurunegala and Kilinochchi districts. 

The primary focus will be the families that are desperate and already adopting negative coping mechanisms such as selling valuable assets to pay off debts or borrowing cash for daily living expenses.  

World Vision is particularly concerned about practices that affect children such as families skipping meals and keeping children at home without sending them to school. 

Speaking about the intervention, World Vision Lanka’s National Director Dhanan Senathirajah commented: “The sporadic rains that one sees can be misleading. The damage is already done and the worst affected are the farmer communities and daily paid workers in the agricultural sector and they need help fast.”

As the Sri Lanka Government stated in early March, nearly 80,000 people may need “urgent life-saving support”.  World Vision Lanka, as a part of this consortium of international relief agencies, will work with the relevant Government agencies to ensure no duplication in targeting families.

The StartFund provides small-scale grants for small- to medium-scale emergencies that often receive little funding. Projects are chosen by local committees made up of staff from Start members and their NGO partners, within 72 hours of an alert. This makes the Start Fund the fastest collectively-owned, early response mechanism in the world. 

World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. The organisation serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender and has been in Sri Lanka since 1977.