Grassroots Foundation launches website

To raise sustainable micro-finance funding for rural Sri Lanka:

The brainchild of conglomerate entrepreneur and active philanthropist, Zarook Marikkar, the Grassroots Foundation is a non profit organization modelled along the lines of the Grameen micro-finance development concept that offers micro-finance loans of Rs. 5,000 per family to those living in deep rural area homesteads.

The Grassroots Foundation is funded largely through founder Zarook Marikkar and is comprised a team of dedicated men and women who provide counselling and conduct training programs intended to build and develop skills for income generating enterprises such as the development and growth of home made handicrafts and agricultural activities.

Proving a tremendous success in terms of providing financial stability, an aggregate of nearly Rs.15 million is being steadily repaid by the recipients of aid from Grassroots, with not one single family failing to honour the staggered repayment commitments.

Zarook Marikkar said, “Many of these families now increasingly want more credit to expand their projects, however this rising demand on our resources is proving difficult for us to satisfy and we appeal to the public to help provide financial empowerment to the under privileged.

Grass funds needs a substantial response from a caring public, at home and abroad, to enhance our ability to reach more homes in deep rural areas which are in the stranglehold of abject poverty.”

He said that the dire needs of Sri Lanka’s marginalized deep rural area population could not hold out much longer under the limited resources available to them, with an alarming number of suicides and acts of violence escalating in these areas.

With the objective of raising funds locally and globally to generate a significantly tangible financial, material and technical contribution response from the public, and expand the scope of Grassroots and Grass fund’s contributions in the sphere of social responsibility.

Founder Zarook Marikkar will be officially launching the Grass fund website [www.grassfund.org] to spread global awareness of Sri Lanka’s vast rural population’s need at grassroots level for sustainable micro-finance funding.

“The end of the ethnic armed struggle and a return to normalcy has resulted in a slew of new applications for micro-finance enterprise funding and Grassfunds needs an immediate donor response to build its financing capacity to help these needy people.

“The internet has the ability to reach out to millions of people across the world and it is hoped that the launch of this website will bring home the aid we need”, Marikkar said.