Salvation Army releases first public annual report | Page 2 | Daily News

Salvation Army releases first public annual report

The Salvation Army unveiled its first public annual report for Sri Lanka “Answering the Call”on Thursday.

The Salvation Army also announced their target for the 2018 Annual Appeal target, totalling Rs.5.5 million and their first donations, which amounted to Rs.2 million.

The release of the report marks a significant change in The Salvation Army’s approach to charity in Sri Lanka. According to the Chair of The Salvation Army’s newly-established National Advisory Board, Eraj Wijesinghe, they plan to collaborate with partners outside the organisation to help Sri Lanka rise up and become more self-reliant. “Servicing Sri Lanka in collaboration, not isolation, is our new priority,” Wijesinghe said.

Operating in the Sri Lanka since 1883, the global organisation has formed 62 outstations in the country, employing 157 officers based in Sri Lanka and working eight of the nation’s nine provinces and 20 of 25 districts.

Wijesinghe recounted the 135 years of involvement, spanning times of peace and times of great turmoil. He said The Salvation Army has become one of the leading not-for-profit organisations in SL, “a challenge to the new advisory board in terms of helping it go forward to greater heights of mission and performance.”

To date, the Salvation Army’s projects in Sri Lanka have included nutrition programmes; island-wide residential care for mothers and babies, children and elders; and hostel accommodations for young employed and differently-abled people.

In his inaugural Address, Wijesinghe invoked the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.”

National Head for Sri Lanka, Colonel Yousaf Masih cited Sri Lanka’s economic inequality as a motivation for their philanthropic and volunteer efforts.

“Like most countries on planet earth, and certainly in South Asia, there are contrasts in human life and experience in Sri Lanka that leave some people wanting for nothing while many others tread dangerously and permanently close to ruin,” he said.

“It’s at the ‘ruin end’ of humanity that you will most often find The Salvation Army in Sri Lanka, bringing transformation in some of the poorest and most at-risk communities of the country,” he added.


Add new comment