Berendina – an NGO with a heart within and a head above

Friday, 18 October 2013 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Let us begin at the beginning. How did Berendina, a local Non-Governmental Organisation with the largest annual budget, come about? Where did the capital come from? For whom was it meant and whom does it reach? These are the questions one would obviously ask, and an attempt will be made here at answering all these questions and they will certainly help allay some fears, if any, and cement some bonds. The beginning of the Berendina saga is as interesting and exciting as the families and their lives the foundation has helped in its years of service.

Poverty alleviation is not a political problem to be left for politicians to solve. It is a human problem. Successive governments and various other institutions have tried their hand at eradicating poverty and destitution; they have tried their hands at minimising the adverse impact of abject poverty on individuals as well as on society as a whole. It exists in some of our remotely located hamlets, plantations and it is prevalent in some urban city centres. Poverty does not discriminate against the colour of the skin or the language one speaks; nor does it recognise any racial, ethnical or class barriers. When it attacks the social fabric of a community, it first consumes the outer veneer and then reaches into the deep layers until it destroys the whole living system. The purpose of the Berendina effort is to stem this process and perhaps, if possible, reverse it so that the poorest of the poor is insulated from the tempests of economic ruin and social tragedies. Berendina has touched these unfortunate forlorn souls. And the recipient community has responded not only with a positive mindset, they have returned the favour with dignity and respect. The Berendina legend begins in a remote corner in Yatiyanthota, in the small village of Lower Garagoda in the Kelani-Valley plateau bordering the central province. In 1982, when Berendina Borst from the Netherlands first visited Sri Lanka, most of the people in the village lived below the poverty line. Their livelihood, if they had any, consisted of either unproductive day-labour or subsistence agriculture; they were a pathetic community of peasants and families merely inhaling and exhaling rustic air, farming and living in rudimentary or makeshift housing with forgettable sanitation. Borst created a Trust/Foundation named ‘Berendina Stichting’ (a Dutch term for Foundation or Trust) to continue the work she had begun in Sri Lanka. Borst appointed her retired Banker as the Chairman with a request to work in Sri Lanka. The foundation started working in Yatiyanthota in 1992 and continued to help poor families in Garagoda to build and repair their homes as well as in livelihoods. People also received assistance to construct utilities like drinking water supplies and toilets. Health was another important aspect that the foundation helped promote, through nutrition and healthcare programs, particularly for children, the elderly, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. All this work was on a grant basis. No organisation, whether private or public, is considered a successful one unless it meets with some minimum requirements. They are: 1. A clear-cut vision and a mission, 2. An honest leadership and staff who is totally focused on the mission 3. A learning organisation which learns and improves A harmonious combination of these essential factors has produced the exceptional organisation that is Berendina Foundation. Berendina possesses all of the above and more. At the apex of the organisation sit three remarkable gentlemen, guiding the destinies of the Berendina organisation with single-minded dedication and commitment and they are ably backed by equally qualified staff at middle level and even lower levels with each and every one of them contributing to the cause of the Berendina work, both individually and collectively. Dulan de Silva is the Chairman of the Berendina Board. In his wisdom, he recruited Jagath and Anura, two of the best professionals known in the field of NGOs. In fact, all three, Dulan, Jagath and Anura had origin in the legendary Sarvodaya Movement and dampened their feet in the waters of social service. Dulan started the first best practice micro finance agency in Sri Lanka named SEEDS in 1986 under the Sarvodaya umbrella and has consulted for ADB and others in 15 countries, whilst Anura heads Sri Lanka’s premier micro finance consultancy/training agency. The local NGO that has the largest annual budget in terms of investment, disbursements and direct material and cash benefits to client-recipients in Sri Lanka is Berendina which is second in size only to one International NGO working in Sri Lanka. It now serves over 100,000 families and that too in a manner that changes their lives. Berendina started with a budget of just Rs. 1 million in 1992 and this year it is over Rs. 1.5 billion due to shifting funds in a more sustainable way for micro finance to reach economical enterprising poor and using grant funds only for those who are in dire need. Currently a large volume of its funds is received as loans from state banks, micro finance on lending agencies and commercial banks in addition to funds from Berendina Stichting. Berendina is a political in every sense of the word. It has twenty six (26) offices in the districts of Kegalle, Nuwara Eliya, Colombo, Trincomalee and Anuradhapura and is in the process of opening three new offices in Galle, Batticaloa and Matara. Berendina has kept her overheads/ administrative expenses to a minimum possible level so much so that the first four-wheel-drive vehicle was procured only in 2009 and a Colombo office established only in 2007. In our subsequent articles we intend to describe in detail the work undertaken and delivered successfully by the two organisations that are the hallmark of Berendina. BerendinaStichting’s twin institutions are: 1.Berendina Development Services and 2.Berendina Microfinance Institute

Through these twin organisations set up in 2005 and 2007 as two local agencies, Berendina has been able to reach the poorest of the poor and the neediest of the needy and bring about, not necessarily a ray of hope for a sustainable future, but at least a helping hand to a terribly suffering individual or individuals whose lot has been totally forgotten by the Government machinery and neglected and orphaned by conventional NGOs. Berendina has some major differences with other NGO’s in rural development. They are:

Belief in ‘conditional charity’ as a need equal to development
Empowerment of the poor through economic means rather than social empowerment, the first leading to the other
As a micro-finance organisation Berendina chooses not easier and more commercial areas to work but the most difficult areas with least access to credit
Treatment of other NGO’s, government and private sector as partners not as competitors
Emphasis and focus on ‘total human development’ of its staff as against making them just better employees
Emphasis on a long-term-program basis with measurable impact instead of short-term project basis
Innovation on all fields (details in later articles )

Berendina has innovative and impactful programs for enterprising poor, livelihood support for those who cannot obtain loans from conventional sources, scholarships for the poor and bright and monthly stipends for elders and, employment linkages to youth and a range of programs for plantation workers including water and toilets. Future articles will throw more light in this work and the impact it has created on the beneficiaries of these programs.