SANASA founder Dr Kiriwandeniya celebrates 81st birthday

Dr. P. A. Kiriwandeniya, founder leader of the SANASA Movement in Sri Lanka, celebrated his 81st Birthday recently (Nov 14).

A press release said that Dr Kiriwandeniya held several key positions as the Chairman, Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU), Vice-Chair of Asia and Oceania Association (AOA) of International Cooperative & Mutual Insurance Federation, Chairman of the People’s Bank, Director Regional Development Bank, and President National Institute of Cooperative Management and National Cooperative Council, of Sri Lanka. Currently, he holds director positions of several SANASA institutions.

With the open economy introduced by the then Government in 1978, Dr. Kiriwandeniya founded the SANASA Movement by collaborating with 935 small cooperative societies in the rural sector. He created SANASA Development Bank, Federation of Thrift & Credit Cooperative Societies, SANASA Campus, SANASA Insurance, SANASA Engineering and Development Company (SEDCO), SANASA Consumer Producer Alliance (SANEEPA) and several other institutions under the SANASA arm. His most recent campaign was launched earlier with the concept of “Lets Reduce Cost – Increase Income” with the aim of developing 5,000 villages by introducing sustainable consumption mechanisms.