Egg Bank Project - Nourishing Sri Lanka’s vulnerable children with one egg at a time

In India an egg is INR 6 but I was shocked to hear that in Sri Lanka the price of an egg is three-folds higher. But they didn’t take a step back. They said they would start off with 500 children and I was thrilled to hear this. I thought this would be an excellent initiative to be launched on my 50th birthday

In a bid to address growing levels of malnourishment among children in rural areas, the Samaritans in Sri Lanka, a non-profit group joined hands with the Valmiki Foundation in India to launch the first-ever Egg Bank in Sri Lanka.

The project has been launched in Ratnapura, Kurunegala and Maskeliya, three areas that have children with poor nutrition levels. 

Sri Lanka is the 11th country to have an egg bank and the first egg bank was launched in Ratnapura

According to UNICEF, around 2.3 million children in Sri Lanka don’t have enough food to eat and this crisis in turn is putting their future at risk. 

The Egg Bank is the brainchild of Hari Kishan Valmiki who is now known as the ‘Egg Man’ of India. The project had kicked off during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic when the whole world was running after immunity. Hari Kishan was determined to find a solution to help children fight the deadly virus. Through his research he discovered that an egg is the most inexpensive yet the most powerful nutritional supplement to be given to any individual irrespective of their age. This is how the idea of an Egg Bank was born. “When I browsed the internet all that I came across were fertility egg banks located in almost every alleyway in India,” Hari Kishan said in an interview with the Daily Mirror. “But there were no poultry egg banks and I seized the opportunity to introduce this concept. So after I started this concept I spread the word around using my connections in Rotary. We couldn’t have physical meetings at the time and I was supported by several individuals from Mexico, Bangladesh and few other countries. I then wanted to get some celebrities on board because then the project would gain visibility. But when I contacted some of them they refused to come onboard. However, former national badminton player and coach Pullela Gopichand came forward to support me in this endeavor. This person gave me some hope. After a couple of meetings I came across some like-minded individuals and we started egg banks in Mexico, Nepal and India.” 

Today there are 100 egg banks functioning all the way from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Egg banks were also introduced in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand and Indonesia as well. “I wanted to take this project beyond India and Rotary and it was then that I found individuals from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and many other countries. This is how I came across Jovanka and her team – The Samaritans in Sri Lanka. We met during a conference and when I shared my idea with her she was very interested because she was doing a similar project providing meals to school children. I was happy to listen to their story. Feeding children is not a joke. Some would provide meals for children on their birthday but will disappear until the next birthday next year. I then proposed that they should add an egg to it not knowing that the price of an egg is so expensive in Sri Lanka. In India an egg is INR 6 but I was shocked to hear that in Sri Lanka the price of an egg is three-folds higher. But they didn’t take a step back. They said they would start off with 500 children and I was thrilled to hear this. I thought this would be an excellent initiative to be launched on my 50th birthday,” he added.

The Egg Bank project feeds many vulnerable children in Sri Lanka’s underserved communities

Nutrition levels 

Sri Lanka is the 11th country to have an egg bank and the first egg bank was launched in Ratnapura followed by Kurunegala and Maskeliya. In Maskeliya and Ratnapura parents of children in estate communities earn a minimum wage and the nutrition levels of these children are found to be quite low. The Sabaragamuwa University has identified certain areas in Ratnapura as malnourished communities. The Samaritans already had ongoing school-meal programmes in those areas. With the Egg Bank project they were able to add an egg to the meal that is already being provided. As such children now get three boiled eggs per week to avoid a situation where parents would be compelled to sell eggs if provided in the raw form. The coordinators have been tasked with the responsibility of making sure that the eggs are being boiled in respective schools and are being given to children to be consumed in school itself. The Samaritans plan to expand this project to Colombo and its suburbs and discussions with authorities are already underway. On the other hand, plans are afoot to support poultry farmers in respective areas by working out a mechanism where beneficiaries could directly source their eggs from farmers.  

The Egg Bank project has earned many awards and accolades including the National Nutritional Award in India. Hari Kishan has many innovative ideas to make the Egg Bank project bigger and better. One of his ideas is to initiate an Egg a’thon, similarly to a marathon or bikeathon where people are expected to bring at least six eggs to fill the bank. He said that in a day he was able to collect 100,000 eggs and that it took him 10 days to distribute them to deserving recipients. He is also planning to find donors to help him initiate an ‘Eggulance’ similarly to an ambulance, but in this case, the Eggulance would go to all poultry farmers to pick up their contributions on a daily basis and on the same day they will distribute the eggs to orphanages, elderly homes and other recipients.  

Orphaned children

Since 2008, the Valmiki Foundation based in Hyderabad, India has dedicated itself to the care of orphaned children by providing good quality education and accommodation. Hari Kishan believes that illiteracy is a main cause of poverty and he strives to make a change through the Valmiki Foundation. Apart from running an orphanage they do many other service projects for destitute children. The Samaritans on the other hand are a neighbourhood group who came together during the Covid-19 pandemic to feed and support people in low income segments. Over the past few years they have fed many children and adults and continue to support people in low income segments across the island. 

Hari Kishan has many innovative ideas to make 
the Egg Bank project bigger and better

For more details about the project contact Jovanka on 0772991162  and Ricky on +94 (77) 126 6914.