HSBC launches extended relief program for most vulnerable communities

• Responding to groups most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic including rural school children and economically inactive poor families

The real challenge of COVID-19 goes far beyond the parameters of healthcare. It’s changed the way we interact socially, and challenged the most fundamental of human needs such as access to food, employment and education; challenging the very fundamentals of our society and leaving many in an extremely vulnerable position. 

HSBC, together with Asia-Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management(A-PAD) and Berendina Development Services (Gte) Ltd., is working on building resilience among these communities and to ease the impact of the pandemic in their daily lives. 

HSBC Sri Lanka and Maldives CEO Mark Prothero said: “The impact of COVID-19 is multidimensional. Therefore, the support we extend to various segments of the community affected by this has to be dynamic enough to address those multiple challenges. The immediate need, as rightly so, was to respond to the frontline and healthcare workers. But it is equally important that we support other vulnerable groups and look beyond the medical aspect to the more profound economic and societal issues that have cropped up as a result.”

One of the communities most severely affected by the COVID-19 related lockdown is those identified as economically inactive poor families (EIPF). As people whose capabilities are extremely insufficient to engage in a productive economic activity due to many hindrances such as age, physical or mental strength and care commitments, they are inherently vulnerable. 

Abandoned elders, disabled people and widows with infants who have no regular income source fall into this category. Their survival is more often dependent on very limited government social security programmes and close relatives who are, in most cases, struggling with poverty. 

Under this project, HSBC together with Berendina Development Services is supporting 3,700 EIPF families in 72 divisional secretariats in 11 districts. The project, which will run from June to August, provides dry ration  for them. 

Children are another group who have felt the impact of the pandemic in great measure. In containing the virus, the country closed down schools and the education of children came to a standstill. The best way forward for recovery was making distant learning a possibility through e-learning and online schooling. 

While this was the most viable option in theory, the reality is that only 48% of Sri Lankan households with children under the age of 18 have access to a smart phone or computer and even fewer, 34% have access to internet. 

There are 10,167 schools enlisted island-wide, of which a large proportion does not even have access to electricity. Working with such ground realities, lessons being shared online or digitally is a bitter struggle for both teachers and students in rural Sri Lanka. 

Under the umbrella of responding to COVID-19, HSBC has teamed up with A-PAD Sri Lanka to provide additional assistance to students who are to sit for the national level examinations such as, Grade Five Scholarships programme (schedule for August), G.C.E Ordinary Level (schedule for December) and G.C.E Advanced Level (scheduled for August) in 2020. 

The project supports 3,000 children in most vulnerable schools with least access to distance learning from 11 districts in the country. Conducted in liaison with the provincial and district educational authorities with the support of Zonal Education Directors and the principals of the most vulnerable schools, the project supports 3,000 students directly and further thousands through the re-cycling of study material via the school library in the years to follow.   

The above projects are being carried out as an extension to the COVID-19 relief programs by HSBC. In addition to this, the bank has been supporting the first responders, healthcare professionals, healthcare facilities and affected communities with urgent supplies from the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. HSBC continues to support the Sri Lankan community as the country looks to move beyond COVID-19.