Sri Lanka
Mercy Corps continues to help Sri Lanka "build back better" from the tsunami, and focus on the country's culinary staple — rice — as a way to lift farmers' incomes and protect families against global price shocks.
Most of coastal Sri Lanka hasn't had time to recover from the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: even as rebulding began, violent conflict engulfed the area, plunging already-shaken families into further turmoil and uncertainty. Mercy Corps, which has helped more than 350,000 Sri Lankans since the tsunami struck, realized that its work had to adapt to meet the challenges posed by disaster recovery and an ongoing conflict.
In the two coastal areas hit hardest by the tsunami, Mercy Corps is helping job-rich industries recover, fighting a food crisis that threatens the most vulnerable families, and bringing together communities of different ethnicities and faiths to lay the groundwork for a peaceful Sri Lanka.
A Can-Do Spirit ›
Handwashing posters, new water taps, and a revamped latrine are just some of the recent changes at Nalagama Sinhala Junior School in coastal Sri Lanka.
One Table: Welcomed signs in Navgirinagar ›
Topics: Food/Nutrition, Agriculture
Paikyarajah has been a farmer almost all his life. But it's the first time he's used a rice-growing method called SRI — which yielded twice as much rice as before.
Blog Post: Drinking water for Sri Lanka's IDPs ›
Topics: Water/Sanitation, Displacement
We're now supplying filtered drinking water to more than 46,000 displaced people in northern Sri Lanka — and a 100-bed hospital.
One Table: Farming Rice, Intensively ›
Topics: Agriculture, Food/Nutrition, Hunger, Rural, Women's Empowerment
Kanthi Weerasinghe is one of 160 farmers in the village of Yahangala East experimenting with a method of growing rice called SRI, which is short for System of Rice Intensification.
Blog Post: Providing clean water to Sri Lanka's displaced ›
Topics: Displacement, Conflict & War
Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans are still living in densely populated camps following last month's end to the island's 26-year civil war.
Sri Lanka's displaced grows to 265,000 ›
Topics: Conflict & War, Displacement, Marginalized Groups
In the country's north, our team is taking steps to help families uprooted to the Vavuniya district, home to the highest concentration of displacement camps.
Exodus of IDPs overwhelms northern Sri Lanka ›
Topics: Conflict & War, Displacement, Emergencies
Mercy Corps is marshaling a humanitarian response to the growing crisis in northern Sri Lanka, where more than 90,000 people have fled fighting between Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan army in the past week.
Financing Higher Yields ›
Topics: Agriculture
A farm family on the tsunami-battered coast spends a lot less time watering their farm thanks to a new motorized pump purchased with a Mercy Corps-financed loan.
Photo Essay: Rice and Recovery ›
Mercy Corps continues to help Sri Lanka "build back better" from the tsunami, and focus on the country's culinary staple — rice — as a way to lift farmers' incomes and protect families against global price shocks.
Blog Post: Resilience and Resourcefulness ›
Topics: Emergencies, Conflict & War, Agriculture
Thatcher asked me on our way to the Colombo airport if I had a favorite story from our now-completed travels. I couldn't come up with one; each made its own distinct impression. But in going over all the stories we'd heard, two qualities stood out: resilience and resourcefulness.
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