Mission of the Foundation
Facilitate, assist and promote the improvement of the innate capacities and strength of the rural communities for the prosperity of the nation, and protecting, conserving while restoring the natural environment and biodiversity especially when these communities are living in sensitive ecological area's.
In the last 19 years many projects were set up; in the beginning the projects were more focused on the socio-economic topics (like poverty, school drop-outs, employment and increase of income), due to the expertise and networks of the management of the Foundation. The last years the projects objectives are more focused to find a sustainable balance between the ecological and socio-economic issues of a region. The NF is a well and professional organized small organization with 14 staff members. Most projects are set up with the support of foreign and national financial donors; the policy of the NF is to make the projects in the exploitation stage independent of external donor money.
The Nagenahiru Foundation (NF) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) working towards the establishment of a sustainable balance between environmental conservation and socio-economic wellbeing of rural communities. It is registered as a NGO in Sri Lanka under the _socil sevices amended Act No; 31 of 1998
The NF was established by Lal Emmanuel, a social and environmental activist with the support of few other enthusiastic individuals.
The objective of the Foundation is to improve the self-reliance of marginalized people, mitigate poverty effects and increase the long-term access of people to sustainable use of natural resources. This is accomplished while protecting, conserving and restoring the natural environment and the biodiversity. All programmes conducted by them are aimed to fulfil the three pillars of sustainability, i.e. social sustainability, economic sustainability and ecological sustainability.
Geographically, the activities of the NF are based mainly in the south west coast of Sri Lanka.
Nagenahiru implemented its activities in four major focal areas, which are given below;
- Environmental Education
- Restoration of Wetlands & Biodiversity
- Climate Change Mitigation
- Sustainable Livelihoods & Poverty Reduction
The ‘Nagenahiru Center for Environmental Education’ is a unique and fully-quipped facility and acts as the focal point for the functions of the Foundation.
The outstanding performance of almost two-decade of activities by the Foundation has been esteemed by national and international institutions. The number of awards received during the recent past is a testimony for this fact. These awards include the ‘One World Award’ (2008), ‘SEED Award’ 2009 and the ‘Green Jobs Award’ (2009). |
