A
WORKSHOP ON RELIGION AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS:
CHALLENGES FOR INTERNATIONAL NGOs
January 18 - 19, 2008
RELIGION-RELATED INTERNATIONAL NGOs
Sarvodaya USA Corporation
Sarvodaya Movement:
http://www.sarvodaya.org/
http://www.sarvodayausa.org/
Headquartered in Moratuwa, Sarvodaya Movement is dedicated to the “...sustainable empowerment of people through self-help and collective support, to non-violence and peace.” Founded by the current executive director A.T. Ariyaratne in 1958, the organization strives for a model of society in which there is neither poverty nor excessive affluence and currently reaches 15,000 villages in 34 districts throughout Sri Lanka. “Sarvodaya has helped them to build more than 5,000 pre-schools, community health centers, libraries and cottage industries; establish thousands of village banks; dig thousands of wells and latrines; promote biodiversity, solar energy, rehabilitation...and peace.” The movement’s holistic approach is based on Buddhist principles (goodness, sympathy, and tranquility,) and on Gandhian values (truthfulness, nonviolence, and self-sacrifice,) and applies across all ethnic and religious communities. In August of 1999, Sarvodaya initiated a Peace Meditation program that drew 170,000 participants with the focus of raising the consciousness of Sri Lanka. Since then, additional meditations have involved more than a million Sri Lankans from all ethnic groups and religions. Sarvodaya’s Economic Empowerment Arm, SEEDS- a limited liability company under the Companies Act of Sri-Lanka- is the largest non-governmental micro-finance organization in Sri Lanka.
Board Members: 8
Full-Time Employees: 1-5
Part-Time Employees: 0
Volunteers: 1-5
Programs/Projects:
1. Village to Village (matching donor communities with
villages in tsunami-affected areas. 2. Providing support
for the 12 designated areas of rebuilding as defined
on the Sarvodaya.org website. 3. Facilitating the development
of leadership and organizational capacity within Sarvodaya.
4. Supporting Sarvodaya's integrated holistic approach
to community development work in over 11,000 villages
throughout the country. 5. Supporting the peace and reconciliation
efforts of Sarvodaya.
Budget: $300,000.00
IS THIS THE MOVEMENT OR THE CORPORATION? HOW CAN I FIND
THE DISTINCTION?
