Saviya Foundation 20th anniversary:

Boost for community development

The Saviya Development Foundation was established as a small group of community in the village, 20 year ago. Its membership and decision-making authority was limited to 25 members, initially. Young members of Galvehera village around Maduganga in Ahungalla were in the group. This led to the path in community service and social development which was started on January 17, 1991. The motto of Saviya was "You are our strength, We are your strength".

The 20th anniversary celebration of Saviya Development Foundation was held with the participation of Foundation Chairman Dr Winston de Silva.

The main objective of Saviya was to "build up a society of moral values".

Since the establishment of the Saviya Foundation, it had done several programs and services in collaboration with the community. These programs were prioritized to fulfill the requirements of the basic development of the village. The major success of these programs were selection of objectives and goals for the development of the village together with effective strategies in achieving the identical objectives.

The mutual understanding among the members were the key driving force towards the success during the past two decades.

The Saviya Development Foundation operates a vision with border approach as " An empowered community enjoying quality of life".

Under the community empowerment, social development activities, micro finance facilities to the marginalized community and encourage deposits among small teams were highly effective. This has strengthened the community to perform of their own rather than depending on lending organizations. In addition vocational skills of the youth and infrastructure facilities in rural community have been developed. Saviya Development Foundation has introduced programs to develop at the cultural and technical centres.

The Saviya Women Organization was established in 2005 to broaden the functions in relation to women by Saviya Development Foundation. Saviya Athwela programme dedicated to the community of Special needs will function as "Saviya Athwela Security Trust Fund" from 2011 in collaboration with the Department of Public Trustee.

The 20th anniversary celebration of Saviya Development Foundation was held in all parts of the country. May religious and social welfare activities were conducted parallel to the 20th anniversary celebrations in many districts.