C.S. Poolokasingham served as the former Sri Lankan Consul General in Toronto. (File Picture)
Founder of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka, Dr. A.T. Ariyaratane, has appointed former Sri Lankan Consul General to Toronto, C.S. Poolokasingham as Project Director to lead a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) sponsored project to assist re-settlers in the north.
The initial project will cover the first of three districts in the north – Jaffna, Mannar, and Vavauniya. The US $1.5 million project will be administrated under his guidance by three local NGO’s: Sarvodaya of Sri Lanka, the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) and the Sewalanka foundation, according to the career-diplomat.
The six month project will span two main areas– Agriculture and Food Security and Economic Recovery and Market Systems. There will be immediate gains for the identified 17,500 beneficiaries.
The re-settlers will benefit specifically in the area of farming, home improvements, drinking water and sanitation, livestock and fisheries, with a focus on prawn and crab cultivation and employment generation, through cash for work programs.
A noteworthy goal of the project involves spending 90% of the USAID grant funding on the resettled individuals and only 10% on administrative charges of all three local NGOs, since Sarvodaya has well established offices in all three districts.
In addition, Sri Lankan and Sri Lankan-Canadian women are playing a leading role in this project. The Project Managers involved include Dhanya Ratnavale with CHA, Lakshi Abeysekara with Sewalanka and Nagavathani Sivasubramaniam with Sarvodaya. The Project Coordinators for all three organizations is Rushini De Zoysa, a Toronto-based Sri Lankan Canadian. The District Coordinators include for Jaffna – Renuka Surendrakumaran, Vavuniya – S. Nagalojini and Mannar – S. Yugendran. The diverse group of leaders lead by Poolokasingham as the Project Director offers much promise and hope.
Poolokasingham has stated his determination to implement the project successfully, in order to complete these endeavors to the satisfaction of the recipients as well as the main donor, USAID.
