Visit of Mr. Aron Halfen, Programme Adviser of Caritas Norway

Mr. Aron Halfen, Programme Adviser of Caritas Norway visited Sri Lanka on 13 August 2019 to review the progress of the island-wide Religious Amity and Food Security Programmes supported by NORAD, through Caritas Norway.

Mr. Aron has made a visit to Jaffna and met with the families who are beneficiaries of the “addressing causes for poverty and ensuring food security of farming communities”, in the village called Alavetty and had a discussion with the poor farmer families about their progress and the challenges that they are facing to ensure “food security” for their children.  This visit followed by the visit to the preschool in Alavetty village, where the children of this school are part of this project.  Rev. Fr. Eugene Francis, the Director of Caritas Jaffna – HUDEC and his team had a brief discussion with Mr. Aron Halfen on the progress of the project in collaboration with the Agriculture Department staff members and Development Officers of the respective DS divisions.

The objective of this project is to ensure food security for the poor families, especially the children by providing them chemical-free vegetables and other food items for their own consumption from their own gardens. The families are happy that they make small savings from their own gardens and learnt new techniques in the field of agriculture.

Mr. Aron will be visiting the beneficiary families in Ratnapura and Galle today and tomorrow and will meet with the directors and staff of the Caritas Diocesan Centres..

NORAD has been supporting the“Food Security” programme as well as a programme “Promoting a Common Vision for Tolerance and Harmony among all Religions in Sri Lanka”