Employability, Empowerment, Sustainable Development:
The Berendina Difference
A gamut of inclusive features, where a combination of funding, skills
development, contact networks, livelihood upliftment, lifestyle
development and good health work together and in tandem to create the
apt milieu of total community development and thus, individual and
community empowerment.
This also cascades to sustained contribution by the rural communities
into economic pathways, permeating into myriad aspects of uplifting the
national economy as well. “The creation and construction of a strong
financial foundation, which is complemented with tangible and intangible
features of sustainable development has been the extraordinary story of
Berendina,” said Chairman of Berendina Stichting, Hein Princen, at the
Berendina 25th anniversary celebrations held recently.
This story of commitment and energy, innovation and change was
further accentuated when chief guest, Ambassador to the Netherlands M
Piet said that, “With Economic Diplomacy being the buzzword at The
Hague, here in Sri Lanka, a part of what we as diplomats are tasked with
is to spur positive economic change on the ground. I see significant
increases in bilateral trade among our two countries, nearly a 30% rise
from 2010 and you will see Dutch investment in manifold areas, whether
its in industries such as manufacturing, processing, health and
fisheries or in infrastructure development. But, when there is proactive
contribution from organizations such as Berendina, this economic
contribution gains manifold enhancement, as the final objective will see
tangible benefits in overall national development.”
![](z_pii-Employability.jpg)
Panel discussion in progress with paper presenters Director
of Verite
Research Dr Nishan De Mel (second from left), Session Chair
Priyanthi
Fernando, Executive Director of CEPA and Saliya Ranasinghe,
Regional
Manager Asia of the Frankfurt School of Finance and
Management (second
from right) |
The Berendina story saw its genesis in the little village of Garagoda
in Yatiyantota, when the founder Berendina Borst, together with her
friend, retired English teacher Eva Mudalige, first began the foray into
livelihood development, working with the extremely poor plantation and
rural families.
And in 25 years, from a milestone perspective based on the theme,
‘Doing things differently to make a difference,’ Princen highlighted the
significant input into these marginalised communities, which now spans
five districts through 26 offices working on a budget of Rs 1 billion.
The two agencies under the Berendina umbrella, Berendina Development
Services (Gte) Limited and Berendina Microfinance Institute (Gte) has
extended over 60,000 small loans and trained over 18,000 loan borrowers
in business management and skills to ready themselves for demand driven
and financially sustainable avenues of income generation. The inclusive
empowerment approach was further entrenched with Berendina linking over
10,000 youth with the private sector for employment and granting over
6,000 vocational training scholarship. Princen also declared that
Berendina's emphasis to transparency and accountability was aptly
commended when it received kudos vis a vis a Silver Award from Mix
Market- a global microfinance information Exchange for its process of
Social Economic Reporting in 2011.
“Berendina's approach to poverty reduction is a long term one and the
focus is not simply on income poverty but also alleviating other aspects
of poverty including health, sanitation, housing and giving access to
education,” explained Chairman of Berendina Sri Lanka Dulan de Silva.
“The target groups which gain assistance from our two agencies extend to
the economically active poor like daily paid labour who barely make ends
meet but are willing to work hard to uplift themselves; similarly, we
also help those who have no income source due to key householders who
suffer from disability, old age or infirmity as well as youth, the
plantation community and war victims. Microfinance is extended to the
economically active poor,” he said.
This inclusive reach is further emphasized with over 16,000 families
in plantations and rural areas gaining access to clean water and
sanitation being provided through the construction of over 1,700
toilets, nearly five hundred homes constructed for the extremely poor
and 1,107 gaining better eyesight through funding assistance for
cataract surgery. Flood victims also benefited through Berendina when
over eighty homes were constructed in Ratnapura and Mihintale and
tsunami victims gained immediate short term funding assistance to uplift
themselves. |