The Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement (SSM) in Sri Lanka began as an educational experience. The founder, Dr. A T Ariyaratne, was strongly influenced by Gandhi’s concept of democracy and freedom based on village self governance. A teacher in Columbo, he took his students out of the classroom and into the villages: "I wanted to ‘awaken’ my students and I wanted to ‘awaken’ the villages. I decided the best way was to abandon the classroom, and take my students to the villages where people are poor and powerless, bringing them together. We helped construct schools, houses and so on. But soon the students were asking "How is this related to our education?" So I had to build a theory. The philosophy slowly developed from the aim of personal awakening, into family, village, urban, national and world awakening." The movement has been an inspiring success story where villagers have been empowered to improve their lot. Sarvodaya is operational in over 12,000 villages in Sri Lanka. About 90 percent of their six million workers are (mostly Sri Lankan) volunteers. For more details, contact Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne at the address below, or check out their web page at http://www.sarvodaya.org. The Sarvodaya Five Stage Village Development Process First Stage: The initial self-help work inspired and supported by Sarvodaya is to bring the community together, to give them an idea that collectively they are a considerable resource as well as a power. Second Stage: It has been found that the Mothers Group and the Children's Group are the most prevalent and most active. The Sarvodaya field workers interact with the groups and development education courses are conducted at Sarvodaya field centres and special institutes for selected members of these Groups. The village child-care centre cum community kitchen generally arises during this stage. Third Stage: At this stage Sarvodaya offers certain services which are contingent on a functioning registered society. The principle service is the initiation of economic activities starting with savings and credit schemes. The office bearers are provided with management training to run these savings and credit schemes. Another service which starts with this stage is the technological support to the village communities to improve their water supply and sanitation. This support consists of the services of professionals at village level and the supply of material not available in the village, as for example cement. It is expected that the activities and programmes started during the earlier stages will continue but with lesser input from Sarvodaya. Fourth Stage: Technical advice on economic activities are also given. This stage is also characterized by the increasing ability of the village Society to meet the costs of the various community programmes and activities on its own. Sarvodaya will continue to provide technological services but the village is expected to bear an increasing portion of the cost. Fifth Stage: |