Sewalanka
Sewalanka Foundation is a Sri Lankan NGO that started in 1992 to assist socio-economically marginalized communities in remote dry zone districts. During the years of the ongoing civil war, there was a need for an NGO that could respond rapidly to changing conditions, work with both Sinhala and Tamil-speaking communities, and focus on the most vulnerable communities in the North and East. Sewalanka has a decentralized structure and was founded in the hope of fulfilling these needs.
Sewalanka works predominately with communities seriously affected by the conflict that has troubled the country for the past 20 years. This includes displaced communities and those who have recently returned to their villages. These communities are faced with a multitude of problems: loss of assets and livelihood; serious drought conditions that affect agriculture as well as geographical remoteness that has marginalized them socially as well as economically. On top of this there is the daily stress and anxiety of the war that makes normal life impossible.
Sewalanka's success in addressing the needs of war affected communities in the past fifteen years has meant that the organization has become one of the most prominent national institutions working in the fields of Social Mobilization, Institutional Capacity Building and Participatory Project Management. The organization implements emergency relief, rehabilitation and sustainable development programs in 18 districts across the country. Since 2000 a special program is developed for trauma healing together with Meth Medura Foundation.
