- Habitat for Humanity SL Goodwill Ambassador Lakshan Madurasinghe on building a secure Sri Lanka
Food, shelter, and clothing are our three most basic needs, and most of us take our food, clothing, and shelter completely for granted.
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Habitat for Humanity SL Goodwill Ambassador Lakshan Madurasinghe[/caption]
Our shelter is our habitat, and on World Habitat Day earlier this month – a global day of reflecting on the state of human settlements and the basic right of all to adequate shelter – Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka announced its new Goodwill Ambassador Lakshan Madurasinghe.
A long-time supporter of Habitat Sri Lanka, Madurasinghe is the Regional Lead for Public Affairs, Communications, and Sustainability for Coca-Cola in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Nepal, and Bhutan, and is also the present President of the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka. Having volunteered with Habitat Sri Lanka since 2005, he was a member of the National Board of Directors of Habitat Sri Lanka from 2009-2018 and also served as the President of the Board of Directors from 2016-2018.
Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka
While we think of Habitat for Humanity as being something we hear about in movies, they have had a presence in Sri Lanka for over 27 years. “Our mission is to put God’s love into action and bring people together to build homes and communities and give people hope,” Madurasinghe explained, speaking to Brunch, adding that Habitat for Humanity’s vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live, something that, sadly, many people don’t have.
Speaking on how Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka plans to achieve this lofty goal, Madurasinghe explained that they work with disadvantaged homeowners in two ways: One is the homeowner-driven approach, which sees the family for whom the home is being built, taking the lead and participating in the construction of the house with the technical support of Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka when needed; and second is a more agency-driven model, where Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka uses contractors as the implementing agent, managing the build of the home in a more hands-on way.
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A housing project completed by Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka[/caption]
In its 27 years in the island, Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka has assisted more than 27,000 families to improve their shelter, from building homes to providing safe access to drinking water and safer sanitation facilities, and lots of other cross-cutting facilities that allow families to build a safer environment and base from which they can thrive.
From volunteer to Chairman to Goodwill Ambassador
Madurasinghe’s journey with Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka has been long and well storied. Taking us back to his introduction to Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka, he recalled how he first got involved in 2005 in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami, when Coca-Cola Sri Lanka organised a day for its employees to volunteer to contribute to Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka’s rebuilding efforts for those displaced by the tsunami.
Madurasinghe was one of a team of three volunteers who went on the actual build, and that one experience shaped much of his life since. “I got the exposure to work on a build site and to meet the beneficiary homeowners, and I just fell in love with the process,” Madurasinghe shared. “That day changed my life. I was invited in 2009 to join Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka’s National Board of Directors, and I served in various capacities until 2018, ending my tenure as Chairman, operating under the single belief that every human has a right to a home.”
Reflecting on his recent appointment as Goodwill Ambassador for Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka, Madurasinghe said he was thrilled to be taking on the role and be working towards a world where everyone has a decent place to live, noting that it is easy for those of us who are not exposed to the terrible housing situation in Sri Lanka to take shelter for granted, knowing that at the end of our day, we have a stable, secure, and comfortable home to go back to with food on the table, privacy, and the ability to get a good night’s sleep.
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Volunteers engaged in a project to construct a house[/caption]
“Thousands of Sri Lankans don’t have that same privilege. There are so many on the streets and in temporary housing,” Madurasinghe explained. “They go home to temporary shelters, if at all, with leaking roofs, or a single block home with no rooms, where kids get to see things they shouldn’t at far too young an age; where education, health, and privacy suffers; where there is little security and what possessions they have are at higher risk of being stolen.”
Looking back on his Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka journey of over 15 years, we asked Madurasinghe what his most memorable moment was, and while he was initially torn, he did recall Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka’s largest international volunteer team build as being one of the highlights of his Habitat Sri Lanka journey. This particular team build saw 200 volunteers, primarily from New Zealand, visiting Sri Lanka to build homes in Negombo. What was particularly memorable about this build was an interaction he had with a beneficiary homeowner – a little girl, who was overwhelmed with the idea of so many different people from different backgrounds coming together to build the home she was going to live in.
At one point, Madurasinghe recalled, the little girl turned to him with tears in her eyes and asked him if these same passionate volunteers had helped him build his own house too, and he had to explain to her that he hadn’t been able to enjoy the privilege of such a passionate group of people travelling thousands of miles to help him build his home.
One of his other most memorable Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka moments is what Madurasinghe calls the “Youth Build”, when Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka took a team of 800 youths from Sri Lanka’s schools and corporates to a build site in Trincomalee. “It was amazing to see 800 people working together, taking breaks, spending time with the kids on the site, and, of course, it was memorable because of its scale – going that far with all those buses on the road and coming back exhausted after a day well spent,” Madurasinghe said.
Stable housing: A right for all, in even the most challenging times
With the pandemic disrupting, well, everything, Madurasinghe shared that both Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka and Habitat for Humanity globally did their best to keep persevering in their mission. There were interruptions, and one of the biggest challenges they had to face was a virtual standstill in their international and local volunteer programmes because of lockdowns, restricted movement, and, of course, the potential to contract Covid-19.
This inability to accommodate volunteers as they used to also meant an impact on funding, with Madurasinghe explaining that a substantial part of Habitat for Humanity’s funding comes from international volunteers contributing a certain fee when travelling to be part of builds internationally. Sri Lanka, a Habitat for Humanity host country (which means they are able to receive and accommodate volunteers from all over the world), has not been able to host an international volunteer programme in over two years, although they were looking forward to resuming this in the near future as and when safety allows.
The pandemic has not halted Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka’s efforts, though, and while there have been issues to contend with, like Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka’s field officers needing to work from home, for instance, the show did indeed go on. Technical officers were able to connect with the homeowner via WhatsApp to regularly check and monitor the construction work, which was still happening with local construction workers from the local areas who were not affected by travel or movement restrictions.
In a limited way, Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka was able to support nearly 2,000 families with an emergency cash grant to meet urgent home needs such as food and medicines, during the first wave of the pandemic, when many daily wage earners lost their livelihood.
Looking beyond the pandemic, Madurasinghe spoke to us about some of the biggest challenges when it comes to housing in Sri Lanka. Chief among these challenges is land. Since Habitat for Humanity only builds on land provided to them, land has to be provided to them by the government or homeowners themselves, which poses a challenge because many disadvantaged families do not have land at their disposal, and with land prices being what they are, they may never be able to acquire land. This is compounded by how costly building a house is, even if it is a basic home. The pandemic, combined with Sri Lanka’s new status as a lower middle-income country, has only served to drive prices ever higher and also affected fundraising, which makes it more of a struggle to help homeowners build stable homes.
Another challenge that Madurasinghe noted when it comes to building homes is a reluctance, across the board, to move away from conventional building and use appropriate technology. “Some people are very risk-averse, and even at the ground level, homeowners don’t want to adopt new technologies because they have got used to things being done a certain way for generations,” Maduraisnghe said, noting that one example is a reluctance to move away from brick and cement sand blocks in favour of newer materials like CSEBs (compressed stabilised earth blocks) which are sustainable, durable, and cheaper than traditional brick.
There is progress happening on this front though, with Madurasinghe sharing that Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka had recently completed a five-year project with the support of the European Union (EU) which saw homes built for 2,370 war-affected families, and approximately 1,000 of these families received appropriate technology homes.
Shaping the future as Goodwill Ambassador
Looking to the future, Madurasinghe explained that, put very simply, he believes everyone in Sri Lanka deserves a stable, safe, and secure place to call home, and that this is what he will be working to achieve as Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka’s Goodwill Ambassador, adding that as Sri Lanka, we all have a responsibility to ensure no one in our country is left behind.
As Goodwill Ambassador, Madurasinghe explained that he hopes to build increased awareness on the issues of housing in Sri Lanka and expose housing as the basic human rights issue it is; work aggressively towards fundraising and connect with corporates, individuals, philanthropists, and the Diaspora for support; and, of course, push volunteerism, – one of Habitat for Humanity’s core values – especially among youths, to amplify his purpose of leaving no one behind.
When it comes to Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka’s work, Madurasinghe shared that it is one that has generational impact and blessings, and this is the approach he takes when approaching corporations for funding. “A stable home is key to breaking so many things, from the cycle of poverty to better health to increased financial stability. We don’t understand the strength, stability, and independence a stable home offers, how it can better our futures, and how it can break down barriers in our way.”
