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On October 3rd, Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya was awarded the Habitat Scroll of Honor award, the UN’s highest prize in the field of human settlement and shelter. The award is granted annually by the United Nations Human Settlement Program and Sarvodaya was among eight recipients for the year 2005.Sarvodaya was recognized for its development work in villages with particular regard to its massive post-Tsunami reconstruction work.

In a ceremony held in Jakarta, Indonesia to mark World Habitat Day, Mrs. Udani Mendis, the Acting Executive Director, and Mr. Saman Algoda, the Finance Director, received the award on behalf of the organization. In a speech at the ceremony, Mrs. Mendis described Sarvodaya’s work with special emphasis on the movement’s focus on eradicating poverty through social, economic, and technological empowerment of people. She described how the organization had been working for almost fifty years in this endeavor of “sarvodaya” or “awakening of all” and had thus far reached almost 15,000 villages throughout the island.

October 3rd marks two important events for the Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya. The society will be honored by the United Nations with an award for its outstanding humanitarian work following the Tsunami of last December. The day will also see the launch of “Waves of Compassion: Sarvodaya’s Tsunami to Deshodaya Plan After Six Months of Action,” a comprehensive report on the recovery work that was completed by the organization in the first six months after the tidal wave.

In a ceremony to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia to mark World Habitat Day, Sarvodaya will be presented with the Habitat Scroll of Honor award, a prize that is granted annually by the United Nations Human Settlement Program for outstanding work in the field of settlement and shelter.

Telecentres are the only windows to Information Communication Technology in many parts of Sri Lanka. These are run by Telecentre operators, who have been trained to disperse this information. A workshop organized by Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya and supported by the Information and Communications Technology Agency (ICTA) and Telecentre.org, a collaborative initiative of IDRC in Canada and Microsoft was held on the 26th and 27th September for these operators. Titled “Networking Grassroots – ICT for People” the workshop provided a platform for these operators to share their experiences, table their problems, and seek solutions as a group. The program also aimed to develop the capabilities of the operators.

Sarvodaya has been honored by the United Nations for its outstanding humanitarian work after the catastrophic Tsunami of last December. The organization has been presented the 2005 Habitat Scroll of Honor award, a prize that is granted annually by the United Nations Human Settlement Program for outstanding work in the field of settlement and shelter. Sarvodaya is among 8 awardees this year.

Click here to view UN Press Release on 2005 Habitat Scroll of Honor Award

In an electronic letter dated September 7th, Francisco Vasquez, the World Habitat Day Coordinator of the program, informed Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, the Executive Director of Sarvodaya, of the honor. Vasquez wrote that Sarvodaya was awarded the Habitat prize because of “the way its well established network was able to intervene effectively when the country was hit by last year’s devastating Tsunami. Within hours, the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement opened a national operations centre that provided half a million dollars worth of humanitarian aid in the first three months.” He went on to commend the organization for its work in towns and villages across Sri Lanka for almost fifty years to promote peace, adequate water and sanitation, a clean environment, and basic health, education, energy, communication, and housing for everyone. Even as the organization continues with this work, it has also made a large commitment towards the Tsunami recovery effort with an intensive, drawn-out plan, which encompasses not only building new homes and providing material comforts to those who lost theirs to the tidal wave, but also organizing programs to alleviate the mental trauma suffered by them.

One of Sarvodaya’s prime youth programs has been the Shanthi Sena volunteer plan, which aims to build peace in Sri Lanka through youth volunteer efforts. A recently-concluded project of this group has been the peace endeavors that were launched with the financial backing of AusAid…

Sarvodaya staff were happy to receive and meet with Board Members of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJJDC), on their visit to Sri Lanka

Responding to the most devastating natural disaster in our lifetime, School for International Training Brattleboro, Vermont USA, is collaborating with Sarvodaya, one of the world’s most respected development organizations in Sri Lanka, to provide a twelve month M.A. in…

Helvetas, a Swiss organization which has been a development partner of Sarvodaya for 27 years, celebrated its 50th Anniversary recently. Helvetas has been the primary resource and technical partner for the Sarvodaya Rural Technical Services (SRTS), the technological empowerment arm of Sarvodaya…

Sir Arthur C Clarke has presented to Sarvodaya – Sri Lanka’s largest development charity – donations collected from British readers to support post-tsunami recovery efforts in his adopted country…

Sarvodaya founder and President Dr .A. T. Ariyaratne, Executive Director, Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne and Head of the Field Operations Unit, Mr.Subasena de Silva took part in several events in Japan…