Sarvodaya USA

Program for Enhancement of Emergency Response (PEER), an initiative by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) supported by the US Agency for International Development, Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) started in 1998. After 2 decades of implementation, Sri Lanka has been recognized as one of the countries to implement Phase 5 of PEER. It intends to build national and regional capacities in disaster risk reduction and management through disaster preparedness training.

The proposed training components under PEER Sri Lanka are; Community Action for Disaster Response (CADRE), Medical First Responders (MFR), Collapsed Structure Search and Rescue (CSSR), Hospital Preparedness for Emergencies (HOPE).

Sarvodaya set up a Community Disaster Resilience and Management Team and has embarked on a new project.

With their disaster management expertise, Sarvodaya proposes to focus their efforts in 60 communities across 12 disaster-prone administrative districts. Having been identified as high risk of getting affected by natural disasters such as floods, landslides, and droughts, the goal of the project is to build their capacities in disaster risk reduction.

This will include disaster response and mitigation and contribute to create disaster resilient communities. Sarvodaya plans to reach approximately 250,000 participants across the project target area through community-specific, tailor-made activities around public awareness campaigns, sensitization of communities to disaster risks, training the communities on disaster management and disaster risk reduction.

Supporting people-centric and people-led disaster mitigation activities in the form of civil works will also lead to alternative livelihoods and income generation opportunities in the target areas.