Street Child together with the Department of Health Services (Government of Sri Lanka) conducted a household-level rapid needs assessment across the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka in 2022/23 Year.From this,it was revealed that malnutrition and out of school dropouts prevailed in the respective provinces at household level. In order to respond to the growing issues, Street Child alongside our local partners have developed an innovative food security programme to support 100 families
Sri Lanka amidst an acute economic crisis with severe food insecurity concerns forecasted from Oct'22 to now. An estimated 6.2 Mn people,28%of the total population in the country are moderately food insecure, while 66,000 people are severely food insecure.2/5 households or 41% spend more than 75% of their expenditures on food, leaving less to spend on health and education. Families have exhausted their basic needs including 3 meals a day and are struggling to make ends meet due to post pandemic.
Street Child is working with a GOSL (Government: Regional Directors of Health Services) and a network of local partners to support in providing home gardening materials (seeds & inputs), poultry farming and nutritious mix preparation as an alternative and sustainable income. Furthermore, 100 families (including young children) will also benefit from the training on home garden and poultry farming techniques including the preparation of nutritious mix and enrichment with marketing linkages.
Our approach is designed to be supportive of households during a period of prolonged financial crisis, ensure sustainable household income opportunities when the family does not stand with the food shortages due to financial crisis. Ensure the ability to financial affordability and access to food will create paths for proper household food security management and sufficient safe and nutritious foods that meet the dietary needs of school-going kids, positively impact the regular school attending
