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| Wednesday, 24 November 2004 |
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by Uditha Kumarasinghe The World Bank has granted Rs.500 million to the Samurdhi and Poverty Alleviation Ministry to implement a special poverty alleviation drive named Gemi Diriya to uplift the socio-economic conditions of poor families in 1,000 villages. The World Bank has pledged this financial assistance to the United People's Freedom Alliance Government to strengthen its attempts to alleviate poverty among the country's low income groups particularly through the Samurdhi movement, Chief Executive of Gemi Diriya Foundation Dr. Gamini Batuvitage told the Daily News yesterday. He said this Rs.500 million has been granted to implement the first phase of the Gemi Diriya project for four years from December this year. The first phase of the project will benefit nearly 700,000 low income families in these 1000 selected villages. The project's community driven development initiative will socio-economically uplift the living conditions of villagers in 1000 villages in Badulla, Moneragala, Hambantota, Matara, Galle and Ratnapura districts. Dr. Batuvitage said the pilot project of Gemi Diriya was successfully implemented in Polonnaruwa based on three villages of Athumalpitiya, Nishankamalla Pura and Verana. The Village Self Help Learning Initiative (VSHLI) was utilised to implement the pilot project. Steps were then taken by the Ministry to implement Gemi Diriya programme in another 24 villages in Badulla, Moneragala and Hambantota districts. Due to the success achieved by the project, the World Bank has granted Rs.500 million to the Ministry to extend the project into a large number of backward rural villages, he said. Under the Gemi Diriya programme, the Government will implement a series of programmes to improve living conditions of low income people in rural areas and redeem the poor from poverty, he said. Gemi Diriya, through community driven development, intends to uplift basic facilities of the community in these selected villages. Project will provide drinking water and develop irrigation networks and other facilities. He said the Ministry will seek the assistance of 28,000 Samurdhi Development Officers and 3,050 Samurdhi Managers as resource persons to make this project a success. Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama in his budget speech has also proposed to provide Rs.450 million to the Samurdhi and Poverty Alleviation Ministry towards its attempts to develop micro enterprises and self-employment projects for Samurdhi beneficiaries to move them out from poverty. |
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