Our Day in Malandeniya, Conducting the Participatory Wealth and Wellbeing Ranking

From: "Lakshmi de Zoysa"
Date: February 21, 2008
To: Bhante Gunaratana
Cc: "Mallika Samaranayake"

Our Day in Malandeniya, Conducting the Participatory Wealth and Wellbeing Ranking

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The Trustees of the Sri Henepola Gunaratana Scholarship Trust (SHGST) decided to select students for scholarships with funds which had been collected and donated to Bhante Gunaratana by his Dāyakayas at the Bhāvanā Society, together with a few additional donations from Sri Lanka. The Trustees decided to use the “Participatory Wealth and Well-being Ranking” methodology in order to select the poorest in a particular area. The Institute for Participatory Interaction in Development (IPID), where Mrs. Mallika Samaranayake is Chairperson, specializes in this method. The Board chose Malandeniya Village to select the students, where the proposed Computer centre will also be located. Therefore, the Trustees spoke to Ven. Wimalajothi, the Head Monk of “Sri Wijayarama Poyamalu Vihara” of Malandeniya, and sought his help for this task.

Ven. Wimalajothi handed over the Householders list obtained from the Village Headman of the area, to the Trustees. This list included all the families of the two Grama Niladhari Divisions (GNDs) in the Malandeniya area. The Trustees invited about 90 people to participate in the “Participatory Assessment Process” (PAP), in order to identify the poorest in the area. Since there are two GNDs in the area, they had to select 30 people from each area. And there were about 530 families in both GNDs. A random sample of 90 was selected for the Wealth and Well-being Ranking exercise from the householder’s list. Ms. Mallika Samaranayake sent letters to the 90 selected people and asked them to participate in the event on the 1^st December 2007. She sent a list of names of people who got selected to Ven. Wimalajothi, as well.

On the 1^st of December 2007, Ms. Mallika Samaranayke, Ms. Lakshmi de Zoysa, the Administrative Assistant Shanika Colonne traveled from Colombo to Malandeniya. Four employees from Ms. Mallika Samaranayake’s office including Mr. Tissa Samaranayake, Ms. Padmini Mutucumarana, Mr. D. B. Rambodagedera and Mr. Thishan Lakmal accompanied them in this trip to help in the work. They arrived at the Malandeniya Temple around 10.00 a.m., and most of the invited people were already present in the hall of the Malandeniya Temple. The Trustees met with Ven. Wimalajothi and the two Grama Niladaris (GN) of the area, Mr. D. M. A. W. R. Dassanayake and Mr. P. M. M. Jayasinghe, from Malandeniya and Kahapathwala respectively, were introduced to the Trustees by Ven. Wimalajothi. As most of the people who were invited had turned up at the temple by then, the Trustees decided to start the work.

Ven. Wimalajothi, the Trustees, the two GNs got together with the people at the main hall of the Malandeniya Temple. First the crowd observed The Five Precepts. After that Ven. Vimalajothi introduced the Trustees and members of Ms. Mallika Samaranayake’s office to the people. Then Ms. Mallika Samaranayake addressed the gathering. First, she created awareness about the SHGST. She stated that the SHGST has 9 Trustees and Bhante Gunaratana who is living in the United States and is the Mahanayke Thera there of the Bhāvanā Society and the Forest Meditation Retreat in West Virginia, hoped to help his villages. She stated that we came to do a wealth and well-being ranking of the Malandeniya area households. She explained how they have been selected for today’s event. She explained that Ven. Wimalajothi gave the Trustees, the household list which was given to him by the GNs of the area. She further explained as to how the heads of every 8^th household or every 3^rd household, for example, were selected to get a random sample for this task. Ms. Mallika Samaranayake thanked the people for responding to the letters. In her speech, she also noted that we hope to establish a “Computer Learning Centre” at the Malandeniya Temple. After she concluded her speech, the work began.

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