Unilever helps village women towards entrepreneurship

Unilever Sri Lanka marked World Poverty Eradication Day recently with an event in Pittabaddara that honoured women in their Saubhagya programme who have taken on the challenge of entrepreneurship to uplift their living standards.

Saubhagya is a micro-enterprise project driving poverty alleviation in Sri Lanka through women’s empowerment – launched in 2003 with just five women entrepreneurs. The project today encompasses 3500 women who have seen palpable transformations in their economic well being as well as their status within the household, Unilever said in a statement.

Under the project, Unilever offers a range of mass-market products to the Saubhagya women that are relevant to rural customers and necessary training is provided to these groups on the basics of enterprise management, which the women need to manage their enterprises.

For the Saubhagya women, this translates into a much-needed, sustainable income contributing towards better living and prosperity.

Overall, in addition to money, there is a marked change in the woman's status within the household, with a much greater say in decision-making which results in better health and hygiene, education of the children, and an overall betterment in living standards.

For most of these families, Project Saubhagya is enabling them to live with dignity and with real freedom from want.

Speaking at the poverty alleviation day event, Asanga Ranasinghe, Customer Development Director of Unilever Sri Lanka said, “Our contribution through Saubhagya is the successful transformation of the lives of underprivileged rural women into confident, business-savvy professionals capable of running their own enterprise.

It has also enabled Unilever to access into unexplored rural hinterlands, and thereby let rural communities inculcate good health and hygiene habits and add vitality to their lives.”

He said the company’s vision for Saubhagya in 2010 is to have at least one entrepreneur per village which amounts to 14,000 entrepreneurs reaching one million households across the country.