About Us

World Vision Lanka (WVL) was established in 1977, starting with small scale revolving loan programmes and moving into short-term community development projects. In 1996 World Vision launched its Area Development Programmes (ADP) in the country and this is now WVL’s main programmatic approach.

The ADP has a life span of 12-15 years and is an integrated approach to community development, emphasizing the process of community participation, ownership and sustainability, while addressing the macro and micro causes of poverty.

WVL also has Humanitarian Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation Programmes and Special Projects for street children. The Area Rehabilitation Programmes (ARP) are specifically designed for communities that have been affected by conflicts and disasters.

The Street Children's project aims to uplift the lives of children living on the streets by establishing shelters to accommodate these children and providing them with their basic needs in education, health and nutrition until they are ready to be reintegrated with their families.

In the aftermath of the Tsunami of December 2004, World Vision Lanka launched a massive USD 120 million relief and rebuilding programme in the areas of Shelter, Infrastructure, Health and Nutrition, Water and Sanitation, Livelihood recovery and Sustainable Development.

World Vision built 2,300 new houses and repaired a further 1204 which were damaged, a total of 57 schools, 16 pre-schools, child friendly spaces, health centres, bridges, water towers, canals and irrigation systems, training centres and many other infrastructure requirements around the country.

The three-decade long war with the LTTE resulted in massive displacement of the populations who fled the conflict. World Vision actively supported the displacement camps in the north with water, food, shelter, non-food relief items as well as nutrition, education and psychosocial programmes for children.

World Vision trucked more than 18 million litres of water to the camps, distributed over 180,000 packets of cooked food and supplied 115 metric tonnes of complementary food to the communal kitchens during its response.