The United States Embassy today inaugurated milk-chilling plants in six villages along the Anuradhapura and Vavuniya district border where economic and social ties severed during nearly two decades of war are now being re-established.

U.S. Embassy Political Officer Patricia Mahoney represented the American government, while North-Central Province Chief Minister Bertie Dissanayake inaugurated three of the projects in Anuradhapura for the local Sri Lankan authorities. Each milk chilling plant consists of a 1,000-liter storage tank within pre-fabricated housing that includes a toilet, running water and electricity. The equipment and training provided through this project will increase the number of dairy farmers in the region by more than 50 percent, and the total milk yield is expected to double.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supplied the equipment to improve the livelihoods of dairy farmers and their families and to help rebuild relationships among communities that have been divided as a result of armed conflict and internal displacement.

Approximately 1,200 dairy farmers in Maha Wilachchiya, Thambiyawa, Tantarimale, Sinnasippikulam, Pavatkulam and Sooduventhapilavum will benefit from USAID's assistance, valued at more than USD $83,500. USAID's partner for the project was the Tantirimale Raja Maha Viharaya Development Society, which worked in close collaboration with Divisional Secretariats and Rural Development Societies in Mahavilachchiya and Cheddikulam.

To build trust among diverse groups in the region, last June USAID facilitated an inter-communal lunch for more than 4,000 pilgrims on Poson Poya. Nearly 350 Muslims and 100 Tamils joined Sinhalese Buddhists at the temple in Tantirimale, cooking and serving a mid-day meal for pilgrims arriving from different parts of the country.

Following that, two rounds of community meetings were organized by the Rural Development Societies with Grama Niladharis and held in each of the six communities to raise awareness and create a sense of ownership for the dairy farming initiative and a USAID-funded tank rehabilitation project that will follow in the region. As a result of this, community members formed dairy farmer societies. USAID has provided all society members with two training sessions on sanitation, storage and productivity. Five members from each society attended a joint workshop, taught in Sinhalese and Tamil, on entrepreneurship and the business cycle of a milk collection center.

USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI), which implemented this project, supports efforts to end the long-standing conflict in Sri Lanka by partnering with local groups to demonstrate the benefits of peace; increase the exchange of accurate, balanced information on peace-related issues; and reduce or prevent incidents of violence in conflict-prone communities. Since the OTI program began in March 2003, USAID has invested $5.84 million in support of more than 240 local initiatives in the north, south, and east of Sri Lanka.