CRS Work in Sri Lanka
CRS began assisting Caritas Sri Lanka in 1994 from our office in India. The relationship grew and in 2001, CRS began sponsoring the National Peace Program through the Social Economic Development Center, the development arm of the Sri Lankan Catholic Church. This initiative was designed to bring together people from across the ethnic and religious divides in a grass-roots-level effort to ease tensions that have been supporting the civil war.
Children at a camp for the displaced in Batticaloa.
After the tsunami, CRS placed teams of staff with Social Economic Development Center offices in five locations around the country to directly support the Development Center and Jesuit Refugee Services in their response to the crisis. CRS Sri Lanka and its partners are helping tsunami victims rebuild their lives by providing temporary and permanent shelter, livelihood assistance, and psychosocial and educational interventions. CRS Sri Lanka also is expanding its coverage to give similar assistance to people not struck by the tsunami, such as those affected by war or extreme poverty in rural areas.
CRS is working in Colombo, Batticaloa, Kalmunai, Galle, and Hambantota.
