Red Cross housing project continues to make excellent progress

21/12/2016 – Hatton, Sri Lanka: The Sri Lanka Red Cross Estate Housing Project, that began mid this year is moving ahead with beneficiary selection and providing the ground work for over 1600 families to get permanent housing.

These houses will enrich and enhance the quality of life of the estate worker who currently live in line houses. They are just a block of houses where over 80 to 90 people cramped up in one single block.

Yesterday the Acting High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka H.E. Mr. Arindam Bagchi, Assistant High commission Kandy for India,  Miss Radha Venkadaraman,  Second Secretary of High Commission of India – Dr. Sivaguru M, Secretary for Ministry of Hill Country New Villages, Infrastructure & Community Development – Mrs. N. Ranjini and the Reginal Director PHDT Hatton  – Mr. Athula Senaratna engaged in a progress fact finding mission in the areas where the project is to be implemented.

The Acting High Commissioner engaged with beneficiaries in order to find out their feedback about the housing project and the implementation methodology from the Red Cross.

The project will last for 2 years. The modality of construction for these houses would be exactly as the much successful Post Conflict Recovery Programme of the Red Cross. It will be implemented as an owner driven project.

Once the beneficiary is selected the Red Cross provides technical support to help build their home. This happens in four stages where the complete grant of 950,000 rupees is given in four installments. The first stage is to lay the foundation, the next to construct walls, the third to complete the roof and the fourth to complete the house.

This project is implemented as a partnership between the Red Cross and the beneficiary. From the start, both parties are actively involved in the construction process, and the beneficiary has a key say in how his/her home will be built.