Unilever Sri Lanka “SaubhagyaDiriyaPranama” – Empowering and recognizing rural female entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka
Renowned as a gesture that recognizes and empowers rural women in Sri Lanka, Unilever Sri Lanka’s Annual SaubhagyaDiriyaPranama Awards were held to co-in cide with The Womens Day on the 12th of March at The Water’s Edge Battaramulla. It was held to facilitate the 100 best achievers from all over Sri Lanka. Project Saubhagya as a concept, has been designed to reach out to rural women as a livelihood that enables them to become entrepreneurs on their own. Unilever Sri Lanka’s Channel Saubhagya has been instrumental in providing them with a regular and sustainable income through selling Unilever brands to the households in their neighbor hoods and villages. As a result these entrepreneurs have built their standard of living whilst developing the villages they live in.
In a unique gesture that recognizes 100 Saubhagya entrepreneurs for exceptional achievement, The Unilever SaubhagyaDiriya Awards take into account the determination, the commitment and the aspirations shown by courageous women. From a total of over 3600Saubghayaentrepreneurs, the top 100 have been selected on a criteria of outstandingresults. The winners were feted at a ceremony held at the Waters Edge recently and were gifted with valuable gifts such as jewelry vouchers,discount vouchers and others, with a value of over Rs 2.7 million.
The famous athlete DamayanthiDharsha was the Chief Guest at this event, where she gave a motivational speech emphasizing on how she managed to overcome the challenges she faced in life.
Saubhagya started 12 years ago with a handful of entrepeneurs who were courageous enough to travel the road of entrepreneurship ; from those 05 women, the project now has grown to become an extensive sales channel with over 3600 women from all over Sri Lanka participating. The Divinaguma Development Department of Sri Lanka grants the loans needed for initial investment and has partnered with Unilever Sri Lanka in this innovative project.
Once they come on board the Unilever Saubhagyateam, they are given comprehensive training in sales covering best practices in entrepreneurship. The Unilever team provides on going knowledge enhancement procedures and provides training in maintaining quality standards and engaging in ethical trading practices.
RohithaAnnasiwatte- Head of New Business at Unilever Sri Lanka , addressed the gathering and explained the importance of this project to the society and how it adds to Unilever Sri Lanka’s journey to build a sustainable business via improving livelihood.
AmedaEllepola, Channel Manager –Saubagya shared key initiatives that wereimplemented in 2014 , stating that the Company is in the process of recruiting moreentrepreneurs in 2015 ; he added that they plan to provide more opportunities for women to join hands with a leadingmultinational company in Sri Lanka.
AsankaUdayakumara – Assistant Channel Marketing Manager, New Business, elaborating the business development plans, explained that in 2015 Unilever Sri Lanka has planned to incorporate community projects under the theme of “GamataApi” and thereby to enhance social recognition of the Saubagya entrepreneurs among the village”.
Operating through 200 “Divinaguma Community Based Bank Societies”, Unilever Saubhagya has had a tremendous impact on the lives of over 3,600 families directly, lifting them above the poverty line.
Among the distinguished guests were MrsDamayathiDarsha ,MrSajithPremadasa , Minister of
Housing and Samurdhi, Mrs. SunandaPiyaseeli Director- Micro Finance, S. Sumanapala Director General, R.H.W.A Kumarasiri Deputy Director General, C.D. Kaluarachchi Director – Administration, K.K.L Chandrathilaka; Deputy Director, Denzil Fernando, Senior Manager all of DivinagumaDevelopment Department, along with the Management and officials of Unilever Sri Lanka.