The Comprehensive Community Health Program in Sri Lanka

Sarvodaya, an introduction

The Lanka Jatika Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya, popularly known as Sarvodaya, is a Sri Lankan people’s movement with a unique philosophy and strategy for development. The movement was founded almost fifty years ago by Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne. From its modest beginnings in a few rural communities, it has grown to encompass 15,000 villages throughout the island and to attract the support of individuals and organizations across the globe.

Translated from Sanskrit, Sarvodaya Shramadana literally means “the awakening of all through shared labor”. In the modern context this means the transformation of consciousness through the sharing of resources, and, in particular, the sharing of ideas, time and effort. Sarvodaya’s vision is to create a no-poverty, no-affluence society based on the Gandhian values of truth, non-violence and selflessness, rooted in indigenous cultural and religious traditions and governed by the ideals of participatory democracy.

Since its inception, Sarvodaya has worked to achieve this vision of community awakening by addressing ten basic human needs:

1. A clean and beautiful environment
2. An adequate supply of clean water
3. Basic clothing requirements
4. A balanced diet
5. A simple house to live in
6. Basic healthcare
7. Simple communications facilities
8. Basic energy requirements
9. Comprehensive education
10. Spiritual and cultural needs 

Strategic goals

Sarvodaya’s goals may be conceptualized in terms of three spheres of transformation:

• The Consciousness Goal: The transformation of human consciousness through spiritual, moral and cultural awakening, and a deepening commitment to non-violence.
• The Economics Goal: The transformation of society through the creation of sustainable village economies meeting the 10 basic needs of all Sri Lankans through social, economic and technological empowerment.
• The Power goal: The transformation of the governance system to establish village self-rule (gram swaraj), founded on the principles of participatory democracy through social and legal empowerment.  

Sarvodaya and development partners

For the first two decades of its existence, Sarvodaya’s activities depended entirely on local resources and voluntary labor. From the mid 1970s, however, the organization started to receive external resources from development partners who identified with the Sarvodaya vision and believed in the Sarvodaya approach. 
Today the organization maintains effective relationships with a wide variety of development partners and donors, ranging from individual donors to private foundations, corporate, bilateral and multilateral donors. 

The Novartis Foundation and Sarvodaya

The Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development has been a resource partner for Sarvodaya since 1996. In 2000 it began its support for Sarvodaya through the Comprehensive Social Development Program, a 5-year integrated initiative covering 1032 Sri Lankan villages in 12 administrative districts. In view of the positive results the program achieved, the Novartis Foundation agreed to extend its support to a similar number of communities in the same districts; however, this time the project was focused on healthcare. The project was accordingly named the Comprehensive Community Health Program (CCHP). 

The Comprehensive Community Health Program

The program seeks to empower individuals and families to promote, restore and maintain total well-being in their communities. It covers 512 Sri Lankan villages in 12 districts to improve the well-being of their residents through an integrated, comprehensive and holistic approach to health. The outcome of the program will be measured through the following overall indicators:

• A measurable decrease in communicable and non-communicable diseases,
• A measurable increase in good healthcare practices,
• A documented increase in health-related self-sufficiency in villages. 

Specific objectives

• To enhance the physical, cognitive and psychosocial well-being of children during their early years of development.
• To improve the physical and mental health and, more generally, the well-being of the disadvantaged and disempowered, and to facilitate their re-integration into their communities.
• To promote the status of community health by reducing selected communicable and non-communicable diseases.
• To reduce both gender-based violence and the antecedents of such violence in selected communities.
• To reduce the incidence of water-borne communicable and respiratory diseases and to improve sanitation through the provision of water supply schemes, energy sources and housing in the community.