Sarvodaya’s Economic Empowerment Arm, SEEDS, is now partially online. Please visit their section for more information. SEEDS is now the largest non-governmental micro-finance organization in Sri Lanka, giving economic empowerment to thousands who would otherwise be ignored – benefitting both them and the Sri Lankan economy at large.
_Message From Sarath Hewagama, Chairman_
To those of you who do not know our organisation, SEEDS is the brainchild of Dr A T Ariyaratne, Founder and President of the Lanka Jathika Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya, a voluntary, non-profit, non-sectarian people’s organisation. It is undoubtedly the largest and oldest People’s Movement in the country and counts linkages both at local and global level. Dr. Ariyaratne’s envisioning of a new social order, through a process of social responsibility and community action, has helped to transform the lives of thousands of individuals and communities throughout the island. In the year 1986, Sarvodaya set up SEEDS as the causal link for the economic transition of impoverished communities in order to ensure that the people enjoy the fruits not only of social emancipation but of economic emancipation as well.
SEEDS to Dr. Ariyaratne is economic development with an ethical foundation. That is why he named the SEEDS Headquarters as Arthadharma Kendra – Center for Economic Science With an Ethical Foundation.
SEEDS began operations a year later and today it has the distinction of being the largest nongovernmental micro-finance organisation in the country, having witnessed and withstood many vicissitudes. In 1998, SEEDS became a Company Limited by Guarantee – an autonomous body yet linked to its parent organisation, the Sarvodaya Movement. In order to promote human development that is truly grassroots centred, SEEDS has empowered a little over 3,000 Sarvodaya Shramadana Societies island wide, to play a more meaningful role.