Monday Nov 25, 2024
Monday Nov 25, 2024
Friday, 20 February 2015 00:06 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Lafarge Managing Director Anurak Kak and Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka Vice-President Amila De Mel shake hands on an agreement to provide low cost housing to north and west
Lafarge Mahaweli Cement recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka to provide affordable housing to the people in the North and West.
The MOU was officiated by Lafarge Mahaweli Cement Managing Director Anurag Kak and Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka Vice-President Amila De Mel.
Under this MOU, Habitat Sri Lanka would enable families to build homes at a lower cost than usual. The initiative already begun in the northern and western parts of the island, will receive the expertise and technological support of Lafarge Mahaweli Cement.
For Lafarge, affordable housing means helping populations with low income to access housing at the most affordable cost under Lafarge’s international theme ‘Building better cities’. The launch of the affordable housing program in Sri Lanka has been an innovative challenge initiated by Lafarge Mahaweli Cement in 2013. The program named Savi Piyasa, (strong roof in Sinhala) teams up with financial institutions and provide architectural support to those obtaining loans to build their houses.
Speaking at the event, Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka National Director Dr. Dinesh Kanagaratnam said: “Habitat for Humanity International was founded 35 years ago and currently operates in over 70 countries globally. In Sri Lanka, Habitat started its operations in 1995. For the last 20 years, we have served over 20,000 families. The Indian Government funded project where we are building 4000 houses in the East is one of our key projects at the moment. Habitat is planning to start projects in Kalutara as well as in Muthurajawela, which would be our first initiative with Lafarge. I believe the synergy in terms of experience and expertise both parties would bring to this initiative would allow us to provide the best possible housing solutions to our target market.”
“When you look at the sustainable housing programmes which are being carried out by us in various parts of the world, you will see that it’s more to do with our responsibility towards society by providing affordable housing solutions to people who are not able to afford decent housing and we intend to replicate this programme successfully in Sri Lanka,” says Lafarge Mahaweli Managing Director Anurag Kak.
He added that Lafarge is already implemented the Savi Piyasa program through its network of retailers and in partnership with major construction brands, public institutions and universities. “So this is just a natural extension from the perspective of identifying meaningful ways of providing low cost solutions for the unprivileged citizens of Sri Lanka. We are also working with some commercial banks to provide technical assistance for those who wish to purchase a home.”
The Managing Director says that these synergies are necessary in order to facilitate this kind of project as each partner brings a different skill set to the table and also like-minded partners are a necessity to make it a success. He says that partnering with Habitat for Humanity is another step in the affordable housing program which would give individuals who would otherwise never hope to afford a home get the opportunity to do so.
