Caring Hands to serve elders, expatriates

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

Another first of its kind company has been set up to serve Sri Lankan expatriates with local interests. Caring Hands Lanka CEO Lasantha de Silva told Daily News Business that according to a market survey done by him there are 800,000 Sri Lankans living abroad with local interests and most of them do not have a mechanism to attend to their needs in Sri Lanka.

“This is an emerging market with a huge potential and our plan is to explore this,” he said.

De Silva who has lived abroad for many years will invest over Rs 50 million in foreign exchange to commence business initially. The second stage will be a day care centre for aged people.

De Silva himself had experienced difficulties in getting various things done in Sri Lanka while living abroad and found at least ten percent of expatriates will need the services of somebody in Sri Lanka to attend to their interests such as looking after aged parents, settling of various bills and maintaining properties.

The company has employed about 80 people in different areas and this will increase in time to come. A growing number of senior citizens in Sri Lanka are living alone as their children live abroad and there is a need to cater to this market.

“Sri Lankans are known for their caring nature but due to unavoidable circumstances they are unable to fulfil these requirements,” he said.

Services are provided by independent contractors with quality assurance guarantees in place and work is supervised by Caring Hands personnel. All transactions are done on line.