30 October 2024 12:00 am Views - 4756
In a bid to fight malnutrition and hunger in Sri Lanka, the Samaritans in Sri Lanka, a not-for-profit group, joins hands with the Valmiki Foundation in India to launch the first ever Egg Bank in Sri Lanka
In a bid to fight malnutrition and hunger in Sri Lanka, the Samaritans in Sri Lanka, a not-for-profit group, joins hands with the Valmiki Foundation in India to launch the first ever Egg Bank in Sri Lanka.
The official launch of the Egg Bank in Sri Lanka is scheduled for November 4 (Monday). In its first phase, around 500 children from Maskeliya, Ratnapura and Kurunegala will be selected where each one of them will be provided with three eggs per week. These areas were identified as children in these areas have low nutrition levels. . His research found that an egg is the most powerful nutritional supplement and from that was born the idea of an Egg bank. The main objective of the Egg Bank is to ensure anyone living below the poverty line and in a malnourished state would be given the number of eggs they require (weekly) to help uplift them from a state of malnourishment.
The Egg Bank is the brainchild of Hari Kishan Valmiki (now known as the Egg Man), who during the pandemic, engaged in researching simple ways of fighting malnutrition and hunger in India
UNICEF estimates that around 2.3 million Children in Sri Lanka don’t have enough to eat. Families wake up every day to increased food prices, struggling to provide for their children in a country where vital services, like healthcare and education, are being pushed to their limits. 1 in 2 children in Sri Lanka are going hungry. Millions of children are at risk of malnutrition in Sri Lanka. The crisis is putting their future at risk.
With the help of Rotary, other organizations and generous personal donors who came forward, the Egg Bank today is thriving in India and is now active in 10 other countries as well. The Egg Bank has won many awards including National Nutritional Award in India.
The Samaritans in Sri Lanka are a neighbourhood group and a not-for-profit society that came together during the Covid pandemic to feed and support people in the low-income bracket. When the economic crisis in Sri Lanka prevailed, they saw a greater need to support a few vulnerable communities with food, groceries, medicine and educational tools. Their goal is to ensure that vulnerable folk are looked after by their own communities. They currently have multiple ongoing meal programmes across Sri Lanka, where meals are sponsored for school children in areas such as Maskeliya, Ratnapura, Kurunegala and Pottuvil.
The group has also been instrumental in setting up 3 permanent community kitchens which function on a weekly basis, and 2 are now run by individuals in their respective communities.
In view of ‘World Children’s Day’, the Samaritans have been providing over 2500 meals each year to children in Maskeliya, Ratnapura, Kurunegala, Pottuvil, Kandy, Colombo, and other areas over the past three years.
In addition to the meals drives which is the main project, they also conduct distribution of groceries to low income families on a regular basis. Over the last 2 years school books and stationary have been provided to over 1000 children living under the poverty line.
The Samaritans in Sri Lanka have also been instrumental in funding and setting up a learning space in a school in Ratmalana for underprivileged communities, distribution of sanitary napkins and new undergarments to 2000 school girls and young adults, medicine to elderly people, and continued support to cancer affected families among other projects.
The Valmiki Foundation founded by Valmiki brothers Surya Ganesh Valmiki and Raj Valmiki based in Hyderabad - India, has dedicated itself to the care of orphaned children by providing quality education and accommodation. Later Hari Kishan Valmiki joined them and took the Foundation to greater heights by introducing innovative service projects targeting destitute children, women and old aged homes.
The Samaritans kindly request people and organisations to join them in this endeavour to serve the less privileged children of our communities.