COLOMBO – The US Government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), awarded US $1.5 million to the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement to support local community leaders in developing emergency response and mitigation strategies in disaster-prone areas across Sri Lanka.
The US embassy in Sri Lanka, in a media release issued on Monday (10), said the new funding was aimed at strengthening community resilience and improving coordination between local stakeholders and international relief agencies over the next two years.
It quoted Alaina B. Teplitz, US Ambassador to Sri Lanka as saying the US Government and the American people have provided disaster assistance to Sri Lanka for more than three decades, and that the initiatives had saved lives, alleviated suffering, and reduced the social and economic impact of disasters.
She has said the United States remains committed to strengthening Sri Lanka’s disaster management capabilities over the coming years.
The release said specific activities under the grant to Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement will focus on community-led disaster mitigation activities, disaster management training, and public awareness campaigns on disaster risks.
It also said the US Government had awarded US $550,000 to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) recently to strengthen disaster management capacity in Sri Lanka and that the funding will support technical assistance to government disaster management authorities on developing national-level contingency plans, leading disaster response simulations, and improving communications, coordination, and information management.
The release also noted that the US Government in June 2020 had provided 160 rolls of plastic sheeting and 2,400 water containers to the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement to enable emergency response ahead of the monsoon and inter monsoon seasons in Sri Lanka.
The US Government, through USAID, has been supporting the government and the people of Sri Lanka for more than three decades to prepare for, respond to, and recover from humanitarian crises. During the last five years alone, it has invested more than US $7 million, the release said.
-ENCL