Unilever Sri Lanka's "Gamata Saubhagya" springs hope

Unilever Sri Lanka recently reached out to villages through its "Gamata Saubaghya" initiative to renovate wells, provide safe drinking water to schools and rebuild community halls. "Gamata Saubhagya" initiative was launched as a community development project within Unilever Sri Lanka's Sunlight Saubhagya micro-entrepreneurship scheme.

This scheme is designed to provide a sustainable source of income to participants to enhance livelihoods and help improve the quality of life. "When we initiated this program, our aspirations were twofold.

We wanted to uplift the quality of life in selected rural communities and at the same time help our very own Sunlight Saubhagya entrepreneurs increase the respect they have among the community. We will complete 35 "Gamata Saubhagya" projects in 2011.

Upcoming projects include the renovation of a bridge in Tissamaharama area.

Next year too Unilever plans to complete over 50 projects which have been already identified", said, Customer Director of Unilever Sri Lanka, Surith Perera.

Unilever Sri Lanka's Sunlight Saubhagya initiative is an innovative partnership scheme that trains women in villages to become entrepreneurs by recommending and selling Unilever brands among households in their villages.

It is such initiatives that have helped rank Unilever as the top multinational company in LMD's "Most Respected Entities in Sri Lanka" survey.