Munchee uplifts rural communities with ‘Munchee samaga gamata sarana’

Munchee, the flagship brand of Ceylon Biscuits Limited, one of the biggest food and confectionery manufacturers of Sri Lanka, continues to reinforce rural communities in Sri Lanka with its community development initiative, ‘Munchee samaga gamata sarana.’ Through this initiative, Munchee fosters infrastructure construction as well as school infrastructure development projects in relevant rural areas.

The ‘Munchee samaga gamata sarana’ program fulfills a large number of long-standing needs that directly affect the day to day lives of the villagers. Developing rural areas is conducive to the overall development of the country. Infrastructure development in those areas will empower the villagers to lead better lives and contribute to the development of the country.

In a nutshell, the ‘Munchee samaga gamata sarana’ program aims to improve the way of life all the communities by addressing issues within the communities that have been overlooked for a long period of time.

Munchee field sales teams identify and evaluate the relevant problems in each village in consultation with village leaders and send reports to the Munchee Head Office.

On receiving consent from the management, the field sales teams commence the relevant programs and continue to coordinate each program until completion. The villagers themselves take part in implementing the development projects, thus adding value to the whole program by involving the beneficiaries themselves to shoulder responsibility for their well-being and development.

The sense of ownership gained through this close involvement safeguards the dignity of the communities and leads them to utilise and protect the infrastructure fueled by a deeper sense of belonging. This also results in generating massive fiscal value.

‘Munchee samaga gamata sarana’ is already on the verge of completing 54 projects which focus on community development and enhancing educational facilities in schools. The initiatives under these projects include building bridges, water distribution projects, supplying water to schools, rebuilding school libraries and IT centres, constructing community centres and other such community development projects.

Munchee has been able to complete and hand over around 50 projects that began in 2010 to the public. A few more projects are currently underway. The ‘Munchee samaga gamata sarana’ program  has reached out to thousands of people in various regions of Sri Lanka including the north, east, upcountry, west and south.

Reaching out to the people of the Eastern province through one such project, Munchee converted a bus into a library for the students in Waranketagoda Vidyalaya, Ampara.   In the Kegalle district, Munchee constructed a two kilometre road and a bridge in Walagama in the Galigamuwa electorate, where the villagers were using foot paths and an edanda (coconut trunk link) to cross the stream.

Reconstructing a 90-year-old public well in Ahaliyagoda was yet another community development program conducted under the ‘Munchee samaga gamata sarana’ initiative. The community in Kallady in Mannar was grateful to Munchee for providing them a much-needed water supply system which solved their drinking water and sanitation issues.

Theja Peiris, General Manager (Marketing) Munchee said, “Reaching beyond mere sales ambitions, we hope to reach all parts of the country through the ‘Munchee samaga gamata sarana’ program and contribute to the development process of the nation. Further, we have already achieved outstanding progress with the 54 projects that we launched and the impact on the communities is priceless.”

Commenting on the programme Nandana Wickramage, Group Director/Head of Marketing and Sales, CBL said, “Uplifting communities is the core objective of the ‘Munchee samaga gamata sarana’ program. Therefore, before we choose projects, we conduct in-depth analyses and ensure that the projects generate sustainable growth. The program also results in building cordial relations between Munchee field sales staff and rural communities which in turn brings back traditional values such as unity and trust.”

Apart from infrastructure development, Munchee conducts a host of CSR activities including educational, sports, arts and cultural development projects as well as corporate philanthropy.