Sri Lankans are charitable – survey

Sri Lankans give generously to help the poor, the needy, the religious and their old schools, but fight shy on giving to civil society organisations, a preliminary study showed.

The Colombo-based Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) and the UK-based School of Global Studies of the University of Sussex have begun to explore indigenous forms of charity, philanthropy and development in Sri Lanka.

By scoping patterns of giving within Colombo and around Sri Lanka’s global diaspora, the researchers are trying to understand the drivers and impacts of charitable and philanthropic activities on poverty alleviation, CEPA said in a statement.

The study is being conducted in Colombo and plans to probe Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Muslim and secular forms of giving – including Corporate Social Responsibility – in the form of cash, kind or time and assess their contribution towards achieving development goals. Charitable giving is huge in Sri Lanka with a population of 20 million people, the researchers said.