A dedicated combatant of rural poverty

Sarath Hewagama

My dear friend and colleague the late Sarath Hewagama, was both a commercial and cooperative banker, his preference being the latter, given his life-long affair with the village and the poor. Sarath had a clear grasp of the relevance of cooperatively-managed, rooted financial services in the battle against rural poverty and indebtedness, and he spent most of his working life as a dedicated combatant in this battle.

He got his opportunity when the local cooperative movement’s icon and Chairman of the People’s Bank, Vincent Subasinghe selected him to work as the bank’s agent with the task of guiding the management of the first Cooperative Rural Bank (CRB) established in the remote village of Menikhinna in the Kandy district.

In this brand new venture of the Bank sans the requisite previous experience to guide him, Sarath was very much on his own. However, given his strong sense of commitment he succeeded in winning the cooperation and support of Menikhinna’s civic leaders as well as its society membership.

In his style of management personal contacts were of the essence and he traversed the length and breadth of Menikhinna on a regular basis much like a talent scout identifying the skills, abilities and potential of those around and advising them also on project formulation and planning.

Due largely to his efforts and the rapport he established with the village leaders he made huge strides within a relatively short time, so much so that he was seen by his cooperative comrades as the very personification, of the legendary barefoot banker. Menikhinna, in due course, became the leader and exemplar of the growing network of CRB branches, currently 1608 in number according to the Central Bank, which span the country today.

Sarath’s unrelenting devotion to his work had its effects on his health, but he held on tenaciously because of his spirit and also of the love and care extended to him to the last by his beloved wife Indrani.

May be attain Nibbana.

By Ranjit de Livera