High inflation, rising commodity prices, power shortages and a fuel crisis has had a crippling effect on the livelihoods of all Sri Lankans. As published by UNICEF, seven out of ten families in Sri Lanka are cutting down their food intake, reducing portion sizes, and eating cheaper but less nutritious food, causing a desperate need for nutrition assistance in the country.
100 days ago, LOLC Holdings was one of the first corporates to understand the need of initiating urgent measures to address the food crisis. Sustaining the efforts over a period of months, LOLC Divi Saviya distributed their unwavering constant support to the local communities for the 100th subsequent date on the 14th of September 2022, with their distributions made within the Galle district.
At a time that inflation hit a record high of 54.6 per cent while food inflation rose to 81 per cent, discussions were mounting on the spike in hunger and malnutrition within the country. United Nations reported that 6.7 million people in Sri Lanka are experiencing food insecurity. Whereas staple foods were unaffordable, Sri Lanka became the country with the highest rate of child malnutrition in South Asia. Particularly, children and pregnant women were forecasted to face a long-term impact of mal-nourishment.
In response to the human-need, LOLC launched ‘Divi Saviya’ an island-wide humanitarian relief programme in partnership with one of Sri Lanka’s premier broadcasting stations, to uplift the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable communities. Divi Saviya programme was curated specifically to assist the locals with emergency food supplies.
The initial stages of LOLC Divi Saviya also revealed the extent to which millions of people across the country were struggling. In succession, the continued humanitarian effort over the past 100 days essentially cushioned the knock-on effects on people’s lives to a certain extent.
The timely project donated ration packages (inclusive of essential staples and dry rations) island-wide. The first phase of the programme covered all 25 districts, within 30 days, covering 224 distribution centres island-wide. Whereas, the next phases of Divi Saviya distributed ration packs to a total number of 125,000 families valued at Rs.500 Million, covering all 25 districts over a period of 03 months in 03 different cycles and continuing. Further, the Divi Saviya phase two concentrated in organising direct provision of food resources to support elders’ homes, children’s facilities and visually impaired units in addition to the selected households. The Island wide journey also focused on the hard-hit urban living within and around the highly populated districts, moving to sub-urban and rural in a strategic sequence.
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