‘ World for Lanka’, web platform to shore up Lanka’s $ reserves

‘World for Lanka (WFL)’- a web platform designed to appeal directly to global netizens to support Sri Lankan people was launched recently.

The organisation said in a media release that it is a credible, transparent, and verifiable platform which anyone can use worldwide to help Sri Lanka in this period of economic crisis.

Santosh Menon, Director WFL said, “We came up with this idea in March 2022. To appeal directly to fellow humans around the world - to help families and children in need in Sri Lanka emerge out of the ongoing crisis in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka needs a significant amount of USD to emerge out of this crisis and we felt that besides seeking help from the common sources- other countries, financial institutions, Diaspora, and investment- we should seek help from the 4.6 billion global netizens, who are online and are contributing to justifiable causes”.

Kishore Reddy, Director added “It was important to structure this in a way that’s credible, transparent, and verifiable. At the end of the day global netizens will seek to contribute to a platform that they know can be trusted to deliver. So, we sought the help of EY to come in and structure, monitor and supervise the entire mechanism. EY has helped us put together this mechanism”.

Chanithi Gunasekera, Director, WFL added: “We intend to use social media to reach global netizens and are seeking the support of MNCs with the requisite reach and expertise to reach them.

We have created a strong communications package to go out vide social media and digital media to potential donors worldwide, but ultimately, we need the support of MNCs to take the message to the netizens.”

Brian Goudian, Principal at EY said, “The project was structured in such a way that all USD received will be deposited in a dedicated bank account opened with a licensed commercial bank in Sri Lanka, and HNB has come forward to partner on this initiative. The incoming

USD will help boost the country’s reserves, whilst the SLR equivalent will be channelled to selected implementing partners to fund emergency aid programmes that specifically targets children’s needs covering the verticals on food, medicine, education, and energy/ transport.”

An independent technical advisory committee has been established to evaluate proposals, improve governance, and advise the Board of Directors of WFL. As the project is launched, two well-known implementing partners operating in Sri Lanka, i.e., Sarvodaya and Foundation of Goodness have been appointed to partner with WFL.