SILVER SPRING, Md.--Rising food and fuel prices, and increasing inflation rates have exacerbated the economic insecurity of many tea plantation workers living in central Sri Lanka, where nearly 80 percent of the plantation sector lives below the poverty line, says the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).
Through the Livelihood Income Generation Health and Training (LIGHT) project, an initiative whose first phase was launched in 2007, ADRA is working with tea plantation communities to improve their access to food, clean water, sanitation, and education, and provide economic development opportunities to help increase their household incomes.
"This project has improved the living conditions in the communities, building a relationship of trust and sparking hope and motivation within the community to change their situation," said Edgar Castillo, country director for ADRA Sri Lanka.
The LIGHT project is also designed to help tea plantation communities develop strong community-based organizations (CBOs) that will encourage sustainable growth in the region.
By the completion of this project in August 2009, an estimated 750 families in five tea plantation estates in the Maskeliya region will have directly benefited. Of that number, approximately 125 will also have participated in income generation activities, such as cattle farming, goat rearing, mushroom cultivation, and home gardening.
Funders of the LIGHT project are ADRA International, ADRA Switzerland, and ADRA Germany.
For more details about ADRA Sri Lanka's LIGHT project, go to www.adrasrilanka.org.
ADRA Sri Lanka has been working with the communities of the tea estates for the past 10 years. Since 1989, it has also implemented projects in the areas of economic development, emergency management, primary health, and food security.
ADRA is a non-governmental organization present in 125 countries providing sustainable community development and disaster relief without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, race or ethnicity.
For more information about ADRA, visit www.adra.org.
Author: Nadia McGill
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
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