Cyclone Ditwah, which hit Sri Lanka in November 2025, had devastating effects, killing over 600 people and causing over $1.6 billion in damage. The villages of the Badulla district were hit particularly hard. The situation for families has further worsened due to the war against Iran started by the USA and Israel. Like most South Asian countries, Sri Lanka suffers from the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, which cut 90% of its energy supplies. This has had a deeply negative impact on the country’s economy. Sri Lanka is struggling to survive with a four-day workweek, gasoline rationing, slowing businesses, and soaring prices for basic necessities. The families of Badulla district who were already in a precarious situation, now have an even bleaker outlook for their future, and many live in camps.

With our partner WDC of Badulla (Women’s Development Center), we provided support to the families of Badulla district by providing them with food packs to help them survive in the short term.

Introduction

Badulla District is an administrative district of Uva Province in Sri Lanka, with an area of 2,861 km2. Its capital is Badulla, located southeast of Kandy, on the Badulu Oya river.

Badulla district is located in the mountainous region of Sri Lanka. His population of 895,000 inhabitants is made up of 48% men and 52% women, 72.6% of the population being rural. It is a multiethnic, multicultural and multireligious region.

According to the Sri Lanka National Multidimensional Poverty Index (NMPI), more 1/3 of Badulla’s population lives in poverty. It is the second most district poor man from Sri Lanka, just after Nuwara-Eliya. The economy of the district depends mainly from the cultivation of tea and other agricultural productions. The women of villages face many challenges as few of them have fixed earning employment, and their husbands are mostly low-income farmers.

Agricultural production does not allow families to obtain a regular income throughout the year despite important seasonal productions. The lacks of knowledge of preservation techniques and access to the necessary equipment generate a significant part of production wastage.

Moreover, the overall participation of women in the labor market in Sri Lanka is low (less than 37%). Village women are rare to have income-generating employment. They rarely participate in raising the standard of living of their families.

Finally, an “individualistic” approach to the market contributes to the isolation and vulnerability of farming families. Few self-help systems and cooperative exist to be able to pool knowledge, share risks and create a social protection system in the event of natural disasters or economic crises.

Cyclone Ditwah, which hit Sri Lanka in November 2025, had devastating effects, killing over 600 people and causing over $1.6 billion in damage. The villages of the Badulla district were hit particularly hard. The situation for families has further worsened due to the war against Iran started by the USA and Israel. Like most South Asian countries, Sri Lanka suffers from the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, which cut 90% of its energy supplies. This has had a deeply negative impact on the country’s economy. Sri Lanka is struggling to survive with a four-day workweek, gasoline rationing, slowing businesses, and soaring prices for basic necessities. The families of Badulla district who were already in a precarious situation, now have an even bleaker outlook for their future, and many live in camps.

Our Intervention

With our partner WDC of Badulla (Women’s Development Center), provided support to the families of Badulla district by providing them with food packs to help them survive in the short term.

The food distribution to 31 families headed by single mothers who have lost their families, jobs, and houses, and whose living conditions are below the poverty line, took place on 9th April 2026, at the Buddhist Young Men’s Association in Badulla.

The recipients live in remote camps, which presented many challenges and made the execution of this project complex:

• Communicating the date of distribution
• Selecting a date that would suit everyone
• Transportation had to be organised for all the mothers to come and then head back home

Our sponsor, Lantern Projects, financed the whole operation for € 478 / LKR 175 000.

The budget was spent as follows:

Out of the total budget of LKR 175,000, LKR 5,000 was spent on refreshments for the recipients on distribution day. LKR 20,000 was spent on transport, and the remainder was spent on food packs.

References

[1] Cyclone Ditwah, Wikipedia, accessed on 6th April 2026: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Ditwah

[2] When a strait shakes a region: How the Western Asia crisis is rippling across the Asia-Pacific region, ESCAP, 31st March 2026, accessed on 6th April 2026: https://www.unescap.org/blog/when-strait-shakes-region-how-western-asia-crisis-rippling-across-asia-pacific-region#:~:text=A%20narrow%20stretch%20of%20water,crude%20oil%20destined%20for%20Asia.

[3] Sri Lankan Department of Census and Statistics. “Multidimensional Poverty in Sri Lanka”. Accessed August 2022. https://ophi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/MPI_in_Sri_Lanka_briefing_2021.pdf

[4] Munas M Muzrif, Dinusha Perera, Kumudu Wijewardena, Berit Schei, Katarina Swahnberg. “Domestic violence: a cross-sectional study among pregnant women in different regions of Sri Lanka”. National Library of Medicine. Accessed August 2022. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29463585/

[5] City Population. “BADULLA District in Sri Lanka”. Accessed August 2022. https://www.citypopulation.de/en/srilanka/prov/admin/uva/81__badulla/

[6] Britannica. “Badulla Sri Lanka”. Accessed August 2022. https://www.britannica.com/place/Badulla

[7] Wikipedia. “Badulla District”. Accessed August 2022.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badulla_District

[8] Al Jazeera. “Photos: Soup kitchens in crisis-hit Sri Lanka feeding the poor”. Accessed August 2022. https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2022/7/31/photos-soup-kitchens-in-crisis-hit-sri-lanka-feeding-the-poor