| “ All are for Golden Rules” – World Bank Seniors Join the Voice of Gemidiriya |
Praful Patel, the Senior Vice President of the World Bank, Peter Harrold, Sri Lanka Country Director, John Roome, Director Operations, Julien Schweitzer, Sector Director (Human Development), and Terrence Abeysekara, Co Task Leader (Gemidiriya), of the World Bank visited the Kebillegama Gemidiriya People's Company, on 18th May 2006.
The visiting team was deeply impressed with the institutional mechanism the village community had produced to initiate and manage their own development. Their close adherence to the ten Golden Rules of unity, self esteem, accountability, trust, realism, thrift, transparency, equality, consensus and sincerity attracted the special attention of the Team.
Welcome by the community
Community representatives described the performance along with the specific achievements of the Board of Directors and the various sub committees. These included the Sub Project Committee on Drinking Water, the Procurement Committee, the Social Audit Committee and the Savings and Credit Committee. Glowing instances of the practice of the Gemidiriya Golden Rules came to light during the discussions.
The Team delightedly joined the community in singing the "Song of Self Esteem".
Song of self esteem
Mr. Praful Patel and Mr. Peter Harrold were interviewed by two community volunteers, Nimal from Kebillegama, and Harshini from Perahettiya. Responding to a question by Nimal on how he would compare Gemidiriya with the other community driven projects he had visited, Mr. Patel stated that both in terms of practice of the Golden Rules as well as tangible results on the ground, he would place Gemidiriya on top of all the others.
..responding to community volunteer
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