Sri Lanka’s leading fully-integrated poultry producing giant Crysbro launched its ‘Praja Aruna’ initiative in 2012, with an aim to renovate and build houses for the producer’s most deserving employees who tirelessly work while residing in rural regions in the country.

Through this initiative, Crysbro is more focused and interested in facilitating a better standard of living to deserving employees who are also at a socio-economic disadvantage. The Praja Aruna initiative has helped complete over 84 renovations and 34 brand new houses which were successfully developed.

The Census and Statistics Department states that 77 percent of the country’s population resides in rural areas, and most often, economic activities in these areas are centred on the primary sector- including agriculture, livestock and fisheries.

The predominant human activities in rural areas involve the production of food, fibre and other raw materials, proving the contribution of rural residents to be significant in terms of food supply to the growing population and provision of raw materials for industries. However, despite their major contribution to FMCG supply chains in the primary stage, many rural households lack basic amenities of life, such as housing, drinking water and electricity.
“For almost a decade, our Praja Aruna initiative has carried out over 4,500 donations and directly supports 250 people in addition to our contributions to rural housing development. We are committed to ensuring that all our disadvantaged employees are facilitated with humane living conditions,” commented Crysbro Senior Marketing Manager Amores Sellar.

Crysbro’s Praja Aruna housing project is one under six pillars of the company’s approach to CSR, which focuses on enhancing and uplifting the living standards of its employees. All new houses that are built are entirely funded by Crysbro, while all home renovations conducted under the Praja Aruna project is funded by the Crysbro Employee Welfare Society.

A selection of deserving employees to benefit from the initiative is done by first calling in applications, which are then reviewed based on structured selection criteria which consider the length of tenure of each employee, performance contribution, living conditions and status of current accommodation.