Commercial Bank launches needs-responsive disaster relief programme
A comprehensive multilevel assistance programme designed to help families affected by the recent floods to recover from their ordeal has been launched by the Commercial Bank of Ceylon.
The banktook immediate action to provide relief to those affected in the vicinities of its branches,but also concentrated on organising a customised post-flood relief programme to provide basic amenities that will help flood and landslide victims to start rebuilding their lives.
A disaster relief team appointed by the bank accompanied by staff of the bank’s Neluwa and Morawaka branches and Grama Seva and Samurdhi officers visited affected areas to assess the needs of beneficiary families. The bank’s CSR Trust has released funds for a relief programme structured on a needs based assessment carried out by the bank’s representatives after visiting and interviewing families.
As a result, 169 badly affected families in the Morawaka and Neluwa areas in the south of Sri Lanka received essential household items such as mattresses, pillows, bed sheets and pillow cases, mosquito nets, kitchen utensils, gas stoves and gas cylinders, rice cookers, electric irons and similar items identified by them as immediate needs.
Meanwhile, Commercial Bank’s Southern Regional Office distributed more than 3,800 litres of drinking water in Akuressa, Morawaka and Matara, while the Ratnapura branch donated a similar amount of water to the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council for distribution to needy families. The CSR Trust also presented a cheque to the Ministry of Home Affairs for the purchase of rice for affected families.
These efforts were in addition to relief efforts organised by individual branches in flood affected areas, and the voluntary donation of a day’s salary by staff of the bank towards disaster relief efforts.