Unilever Sri Lanka’s ‘Gamata Saubhagya’ gives new hope to rural communities

Unilever Sri Lanka’s ‘Gamata Saubhagya’ gives new hope to rural communities

Delivering on its commitment to grow its ties with the communities it serves, Unilever Sri Lanka recently reached out to 10 villages through its ‘Gamata Saubaghya’ initiative to renovate wells, provide safe drinking water to schools and rebuild community halls.

The ‘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, thereby enhancing livelihoods and helping improve the quality of life.

Under the ‘Gamata Saubhagya’ initiative, Unilever Sri Lanka’s Customer Development team combined with the Sunlight Saubaghya entrepreneurs to identify pressing infrastructure needs within these communities and took steps to rectify them.

“When we initiated this programme, 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 similar projects which have been already identified”, stated Surith Perera, Customer Director of Unilever Sri Lanka.         

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.