“There is so much potential here, we look forward to collaborate with SANASA” , says the data management specialist, Alex who is one among the eight Young Professionals from Rabobank, a Cooperative Food and Agri bank located in the Netherlands, who travelled to Sri Lanka to learn and understand the IT eco system of the SANASA movement. The group was comprised of professionals with diverse competencies in data, cloud infrastructure, different programming languages, data dashboards and web applications as well as financing and business analysis.

The team met the founder and the visionary leader of SANASA, Dr.P.A Kiriwandeniya, The board members and managers of SANASA federation, SDB bank, SANASA insurance, SANASA campus and several SANASA District unions and primary level cooperative societies. “Its truly amazing to see the primary cooperatives and district unions of SANASA federation, the dedication of the people and how they try to serve the poor people, I am really inspired and motivated by their mission and their dreams” Megan, a Business Analyst was impressed by the hard work of the cooperatives of Sanasa movement. “We got lots of insights, we are eager to create solutions. Sri Lanka as a country is truly amazing…I love the food, I love the culture, I love Sri Lanka” says Deepika who is an Indian living in Netherlands and is working for Rabobank in the Netherlands.

The key objective of the field visit was to gather information in order to design a support program focused on the digital capabilities of the SANASA movement, which will enable members to have better access to the financial products provided through SANASA system while the Federation and the cooperatives to have a more efficient and cost-effective service provision to their members.” It was such a warm welcome and I want to take a bit of this friendliness to The Netherlands” says Jelmer. For Philbert it was really an eye opener to see what can be accomplished while Aranza from Mexico said that she was so happy to see the sense of belonging to a community and to witness Sri Lankan hospitality.

The field visit to SANASA was arranged by Ms Juliette Hensgens, Project Manager at Rabo Partnerships, and was organized by SANASA International with the collaboration of SANASA Federation and the other partner organizations. The young professionals shared the many insights they gathered during their visit which was warmly received by SANASA team. Bjorn Schrijver, Project Manager of Rabo Partnerships, commenting on the mission of the youth said ” I think we have a great task ahead of us, get all stakeholders with a joint vision, very positive meetings, well received and we hope to come back in few months with concrete solutions to support SANASA to build right technology and right business proposition to create more value for the movement and its members.”