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• About Us
• Our Aims
• Message from the CEO
• Trustees
• Staff
• Partnerships
• Strategic Partners

Two years on from the Tsunami that brought such an extraordinary response from the public worldwide, our idea to capture the spirit of giving and turn it into an ongoing response to communities living in poverty, has come alive.

The organisation has become a vehicle for individuals with the interest and the will to experience first hand, and be part of finding solutions that can bring about lasting change to communities trapped by poverty. Our programme includes fundraising, education and sustainable development and is underpinned by a key pillar – microfinance.

Since our inception, we have run successful pilot projects in Peraliya, Sri Lanka and in Delhi, India, enabling us to test the programme structure and most importantly to achieve some amazing outcomes for the communities we worked with. Our volunteers from those projects remain engaged with the community; renewing micro-loans and via the Supply Chain, ensuring the small amounts of money that can make a big difference, do.  

The microfinance element to our programmes has been an extraordinary success.  An array of enterprises from rope making businesses to village shops have been set up, enabling those with limited support to realise their entrepreneurial ambitions.  We have also seen the development of a home garden project turn in to a community wide initiative; and the launch of a football club in Delhi keeping children away from the streets after school as well as a grocery shop opening up in a remote village where there previously was none.  

Part of our quest over the last two years has been to search for a broader description for our participants who are not so much volunteers, but change makers.  Rather than developing an alumni of volunteers we will look to create a change-makers network. We hope this description better embodies the nature of both the programme and the long term engagement we look to promote.

Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.

Nelson Mandela

You might have noticed our name change; what was Tsunami Generation, has now become The Great Generation.  This change reflects our conscious decision to take the successes of our pilot projects in Sri Lanka and India to other communities throughout the world. The Great Generation will continue to be closely connected to communities affected by the tsunami.

The development of a robust network of expert partners – local NGOs with whom we develop projects – is paramount.  This takes time and skill from our core team of development specialists, led by Lauren Godfrey who joined us during 2006, in developing a dialogue with a community that allows our projects to succeed.  Their work is a delicate balance between offering the opportunity for innovation and change in vulnerable communities, and the community’s needs.  Our expert network now covers Africa, Asia and South America where our partners provide the individuals who participate in our programme with deep insight to the community they visit.

The support of Lloyds TSB Development Capital (LDC), our first corporate partner, has been critical to our pilot phases and we look forward to developing our partnership with them over the next two years.  We are also pursuing partnership opportunities with schools, sixth forms and universities.

A new partnership with The European School of Management (ESCP-EAP) will see European MBA students participating in our programme as well as using their business skills to explore potential social enterprises.  And, we continue to seek new partners from the both the private and public sector to build our network and deliver the change we believe can happen when the agency of the individual is engaged. Our work will not be complete until, as Professor Muhammad Yunus says, “the last person out of poverty cuts the ribbon at the opening ceremony of the Museum of Poverty”.  If you are interested in becoming part of The Great Generation as a partner or participant, please call or email us.