Plan International supports Sri Lanka schools to stop COVID-19 spread
19 January 2022A new programme will deliver handwashing facilities in over 300 Sri Lankan schools to help prevent the spread of disease.
Plan International is partnering with the NGO Secretariat of Sri Lanka to deliver handwashing facilities in 354 schools, helping to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The community benefit project, implemented with the support of governmental educational authorities, will focus on schools in Anuradhapura, Monaragala, Ampara, Mullaitivu and Hambantota districts.
By strengthening hygiene and COVID-19 prevention measures, the project aims to help children safely attend school and continue their education. The project will focus on schools in areas where Plan International formerly ran child sponsorship programmes, before the child rights organisation’s exit from Sri Lanka in December 2019.
Bhagyashri Dengle, Plan International Executive Director for Asia Pacific Region said: “We are pleased to confirm that following our departure from Sri Lanka, as a farewell gesture to the children and communities we worked with, we will be supporting schools in our former sponsorship areas with vital facilities that will help children safely carry on with their studies.
“We are grateful to the support and constructive collaboration provided by the NGO Secretariat in enabling the development of a very relevant project for the safety of children in the programme areas we worked in. We are delighted to add to the many lasting contributions we made through our programme work over the past 39 years for the children and communities of Sri Lanka, with a community benefit project whose benefits will continue to flow for years to come.”
Plan International and the NGO Secretariat of Sri Lanka will continue to work together to ensure the successful delivery of the project for the benefit of school children in the districts mentioned above.
Raja Goonaratrne, Director General of the NGO Secretariat of Sri Lanka said: “I am pleased to support the implementation of Plan International’s community benefit development project by the Sri Lanka NGO Secretariat over the next 3-5 months. This school handwashing stations implementation project is of critical importance, to not only assure the safety of our children but in teaching the importance of maintaining good hygiene which as we all know directly enhances the overall health and well-being of Sri Lanka.”
Following its departure from Sri Lanka, Plan International has appointed a power of attorney to represent the organisation in Sri Lanka and management consultants Ernst & Young to monitor the delivery of the project and support on the development of a completion report. Plan International also shared an independent review of its exit from Sri Lanka, along with an outline of the steps being taken to address the findings and strengthen its work with children and girls going forwards.
Categories: Education
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