‘World for Lanka’ web platform to shore up Sri Lanka’s USD reserves launched

‘World for Lanka’ (WFL), a web platform designed to appeal directly to global netizens to support Sri Lankan people, was launched yesterday.

It’s a transparent and verifiable platform, which anyone can use worldwide to help Sri Lanka in this period of economic crisis.

WFL Director Santosh Menon said, “We came up with this idea in March 2022. To appeal directly to fellow humans around the world – to help families and children in need in Sri Lanka emerge out of the ongoing crisis in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka needs a significant amount of US dollars to emerge out of this crisis and we felt that besides seeking help from the common sources – other countries, financial institutions, diaspora and investment – we should seek help from the 4.6 billion global netizens, who are online and are contributing to justifiable causes.”

Director Kishore Reddy added, “It was important to structure this in a way that’s credible, transparent and verifiable. At the end of the day, global netizens will seek to contribute to a platform that they know can be trusted to deliver. So, we sought the help of EY to come in and structure monitor and supervise the entire mechanism. EY has helped us put together this mechanism.”

WFL Director Chanithi Gunasekera added, “We intend to use social media to reach global netizens and are seeking the support of MNCs with the requisite reach and expertise to reach them.  We have created a strong communications package to go out vide social media and digital media to potential donors worldwide but ultimately, we need the support of MNCs to take the message to the netizens.” 

EY Principal Brian Goudian said, “The project was structured in such a way that all US dollars received will be deposited in a dedicated bank account opened with a licensed commercial bank in Sri Lanka and HNB has come forward to partner on this initiative. The incoming US dollars will help boost the country’s reserves, whilst the Sri Lankan rupee equivalent will be channelled to selected implementing partners to fund emergency aid programmes that specifically target children’s needs, covering the verticals on food, medicine, education and energy/transport. An independent technical advisory committee was established to evaluate the proposals, improve governance and advise the board of directors of WFL. As the project is launched, two well-known implementing partners operating in Sri Lanka, i.e., Sarvodaya and Foundation of Goodness, have been appointed to partner with WFL and implement selected projects.”

The technical committee that evaluated the proposals included Dr. Sanath Mahawithanage and Chandi Dharamaratne. They said, “We followed a rigorous process of looking through each proposal with a tooth comb, asked searching questions and eventually tailored projects, which if implemented could benefit the needy families across the island. Right now, the children of the island need as much support as they can get to emerge out of this crisis successfully and funds from global netizens will go a long way to help the country.”

Menon added, “A lot of private sector companies and individuals have lent their support to put together this initiative. EY, DeSerams (our legal advisors), Quest and Query, FCB kl.lk, TETRIS, who created the website, Shanaka Galagoda, Strawberry films, Frontline pictures, Sound Asia, Origin films, who made films to appeal to netizens, PR wire, our PR partner, Digital Content, our digital partner and Dr. Sanath Mahawithanage and Chandi Dharamaratne, our technical committee members. They have all come together, spared their time and resources to put together this effort. We think we have a platform that can now be used to appeal to the world and seek support for the country.” 

Further support has come from the Indian CEO Forum to help propagate the platform using social media. 
Implementing partner Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement President Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne said, “We eagerly look forward to the WFL being launched. They followed a rigorous process of determining their partners and we have been very ambitious in our proposals for the website. We have partnered many initiatives but this particular one is definitely distinct and unique in terms of ambition, idea and attempted scale. We wish the initiative all success as the country needs the financial support right now.”

Foundation of Goodness Founder and WFL implementing partner Kushil Gunasekera said, “The Foundation of Goodness is greatly honoured by this invitation to join the WFL platform in enhancing the prospects of serving humanity, reaching out to a wider range of beneficiaries, understanding their hardships and struggles.”