A world in which people can dream, act and change.
Our Mission
Empower Projects is a social enterprise that enables entrepreneurs to build self-reliant communities. We achieve this by:
Partnering with rural communities, social organisations, suppliers of sustainable technologies and financiers to develop sustainable solutions to alleviate poverty.
Capturing the voice of the community in order to understand the assets, aspirations, challenges and opportunities in each unique context. This in turns allows communities to develop and lead solutions that address their self-assessed social, economic and environmental challenges.
Providing access to capital through tailored micro-credit loan schemes that entrepreneurs can utilise to grow businesses. Communities decide on a fair price for the capital that we provide.
Building the capacity of local entrepreneurs through up-skilling and ongoing support to enable them to effectively start and manage their businesses.
Providing access to sustainable technologies. Our definition of sustainable technology encompasses technologies that have demonstrable social, economic and environmental impacts; are affordable, durable and easy to use. Our areas of focus for technology are energy and water access, agriculture, sanitation, communication and health.
Our Story
Founded in Sydney, Australia in 2008, Empower was an initiative by a team of student volunteers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) led by Shanil Samarakoon. Empower was created as a result of a shared passion for the potential of using renewable energy in a rural development context. The team’s first project involved the implementation of a pilot biogas electricity generation system in rural Sri Lanka.
Empower continues to focus on the use of sustainable technology to action a community’s vision for social and economic development.
What we do
•Develop strategic partnerships with like-minded organisations in Australia and overseas that can enrich projects and strengthen our capacity to deliver positive impact
•Collaborate with project partners and local communities to design and implement sustainable development projects
•Market our project portfolio and source project finance
•Project monitoring, project visits, evaluation and impact assessment
