JANARUKULA Community Supporter

Janarukula is a Sinhala term. It means Support Provider to the Community. Janarukula provides support to Sri Lanka poor women who feel the brunt of poverty, to identify their own problems and to design and implement their own projects and programs to solve these problems to fulfill their own needs.

Janarukula is founded by Upali Sumithre and few community leaders who have learned lessons from the traditional community based organizations that they have worked for a longer period of time. These community leaders have evolved the following principals based on the participatory development strategy in providing support to the poverty alleviation programs of the poor women in Sri Lanka

1. The poor women should be the main actors in the efforts to overcome the      prevailing poverty in their families and the communities.
2. Thrift and credit should be the back bone activities of any poverty alleviation      effort.
3. There should be sound operational system where all those involve could meet    regularly and conveniently to discuss their problems and evolve solution to      them.
4. Poverty alleviation efforts of the poor should be directed by the poor for the      benefits of the poor without depending on external conditional support.

Based on the above principles Janarukula was promoted as an ongoing participatory development program for the poverty alleviation of the Sri Lankan poor women and their families. It was registered on 16th July 1997 under the Social Services Act. It has its principal office at Galthotamulla Road, Yakkala in Gampaha District in Sri Lanka.

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Janrukula is a community based Non - Governmental Organization established by Upali sumithre, who had worked under the hundred one Million housing program of the National Housing Development Authority as a community Organizer to Organize urban poor to carry on self help housing schemes in urban area and two other members engaged in spreading poverty alleviation program for poor women in Sri lanka.

It's strategy is to organize poor women of equal economic and social status in to small 5-15 women's mutual help groups. The mission of these self help and mutual help group is to put the resources, ideas, and support of their own members to raise their economic and cultural status on principal of the self help and mutual help without depending on government and external support.

These 5-15 members should meet at one of the member's houses at least once a week to discuss their socio economic and cultural problems and to save Rs. five for a week. At these meetings they should elect a group leader, vice leader and secretary at the first meeting. Group leader should be the Treasurer. All saving collected should be kept in custody the group leader. Janarukula will provide cash boxes to these small groups.

Five Groups operating in close proximity should be federated in to primary society. This primary society all members of the small groups should enroll as shareholders of these primary society by buying at least one share of the share capital of the primary society by paying rupees one hundred. These primary societies will function as branch of WOMEN'S DEVELOPMENT FEDERATION and they will come under scrutiny of the Janarukula.

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