To harness human resources and enable the poor to transform their lives…
Chinmaya Mission is a spiritual, social and educational organization with a global presence. The service wing of the Mission operates under the acronym CORD – Chinmaya Organisation of Rural Development. Following the vision of its founder, Swami Chinmayananda, it has been actively serving citizens of rural areas for the past several years.
Our Values
Our Story
2004 – Tsunami disaster in December 2004. It destroyed all the infrastructure on the island. Nearly 300,000 lost their houses. CORD provided immediate relief in the form of medicines, cooked food, and then dry rations to the affected people in Batticaloa.
2005 – CORD Sri Lanka was established in order to сope with the consequences of the Tsunami disaster. We helped hundreds of families whose homes and schools were washed away. We provided educational materials and nearly one thousand scholarships for three years.
After the immediate relief had been provided, the head of CORD from India Dr.Kshema Metre came to Sri Lanka and inaugurated the first Self Help Group (SHG). 19 women came and sat under a tree and were inspired to learn how to take care of themselves independently.
2006 – CORD was the first to obtain Central Bank authority to commence group micro saving schemes. Within a year this had spread to 18 villages and 800 women headed families. Small businesses including sewing and snack making took off successfully. The Netherlands government, through the National Chamber of Commerce, donated equipment for 50 women.
2007 – CORD started to work in central Sri Lanka, based at the Chinmaya Kovil at Rambodha. Our objective has been to empower women in the tea plantation community through various self sustaining projects. Enterprises include making batik; leather handbags; various other bags including school bags made of cloth; selling garden plants; growing mushrooms; dairy produce; etc.
2009 – Once the war ended, CORD started operations in the North. At this time we operated in the refugee camps where about 300,000 people were living. CORD supplied immediate relief to 5,000 people in the form of clothes; toiletries; milk powder; medicines; bedsheets; etc.
2010 – The refugees, including approximately 100,000 young war widows with children, were allowed to leave the camps. As there were still extensive minefields, many of these weren’t allowed to return to their original homes and settled temporarily in the Jaffna Peninsula. CORD started forming Self Help Groups. CORD gave the families funds to restart their lives, to buy household utensils and basic dry foods.
2011 – After the war the refugee children’s education was severely disrupted. CORD started a “sponsor a child” programme for orphans and children from women headed families. This provided school uniform, stationery, medical and counseling services.
Our Team
Some instuctions for those, who want to join the team what to do, who to contact…
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