Rural Wilgamuwa

Most rural communities in Sri Lanka are comprised of farmers who have basic education or no education at all. The community of Wilgamuwa is located in the dry zone of Sri Lanka (rainfall less than 1000 mm/yea) and characterized by high levels of poverty, energy and food insecurity. Land frag-mentation and acclimatization have resulted in many families now having too little land and food to support themselves and are in need of alternative, supplementary sources of income.

Counting the days...

Just 46 days to go for the Saraii team to visit Sri Lanka to set up our Eco Tourism venture and we are counting the days...

We are 4 MBA students from the Colorado State University, studying the Global Social Sustainable Enterprise (GSSE) program in the College of Business. Our Summer project is based on setting up a social venture that would address all aspects of the triple bottom line in a developing country.

My name is Charitha, i'm from Sri Lanka and i joined the GSSE program in order to gain the knowledge and experience needed to set up a social venture of my own. Coming into GSSE with a concept of setting up a Sustainable Tourism business in a rural farming community called Wilgamuwa in Sri Lanka, i have managed to team up with 3 other colleagues, Maria (from Madagascar), Shabda (from Nepal) and Bryce (from US) to make this concept a reality. We plan to offer a unique experience to our customers, with green sustainable housing powered by alternate energy, cultural and adventurous activities, and amazing organic and fresh traditional food.

The community will be an integral part of our business, with us providing them employment opportunities with Saraii and also at later stage by supporting them to have similar housing and energy options for their own households.

We will come down to Sri Lanka on the 31of May to conduct a field research, test the market and carry out the final plans of setting up our business.