By Charles Haviland BBC News, Colombo

	President says the result shows 'the reality of our caring and sharing society'

Mahinda Rajapaksa said that last week's analysis by the British-based Charities Aid Foundation showed that Sri Lanka – whose long-running war only ended last year - was a very caring society.

Sri Lanka's people emerged as remarkably generous in this survey, conducted by the polling organisation Gallup.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa described the result as an honour for every citizen of the country and said it captured “the reality of our caring and sharing society”.

Helping strangers

He said the survey gave him encouragement that a future of peace and harmony could be built through Sri Lankans’ help for each other.

In the last stages of the war and its aftermath there were many instances of people in the unaffected parts of the country sending or bringing food and other aid to the displaced people in the north.

	The survey has taken into account the donations to political organisations and places of worship

The report by the Charities Aid Foundation or CAF measured not just what percentage of the population gave money to organisations, but also how many of them volunteered their time and how many helped a stranger.

On a combination of all three indices Sri Lanka came in eighth place worldwide – equal with Britain, and the highest-placed developing country.

And Sri Lankans came second overall in giving their time.

The head of the CAF, John Low, said that the level of giving in a country said something about the strength of civil society.

The report said giving time and money to an organisation could include political organisations as well as places of worship and conventional charities.

Overall the survey suggested that giving was linked to a sense of wellbeing.

Here, sadly, Sri Lanka was not typical: it has an especially high suicide rate, and a new report here suggests that this continues to be the case, with about 12 Sri Lankans taking their own lives each day.