He currently functions as Chairman of Capital Media, Publisher of Echelon, Cosmopolitan Sri Lanka and EconomyNext. com; Deputy Chairman of Sarvodaya Development Finance; and Managing Director of Summit Finance. Channa de Silva is excited about “changing people’s lives for the better” and has recently embarked on a pet project to distribute a booklet highlighting the dangerous amounts of sugar found in everyday products from flavoured milk to sauce and cereal. He has printed 40,000 copies of the booklet, licensed by the Consumer Association of Penang, and is in the process of distributing them to schools and other associations. He plans to print 500,000 copies in total and distribute them across the country via an awareness march of cyclists riding from the southern tip of the island to the north. “Giving back to society is the best thing,” says de Silva, “and there is nothing better than health.” He is already planning to release books covering the ill effects of salt and bread as well.
In his official role at Sarvodaya Development Finance, de Silva champions access to finance for the low-income bracket. “Access to finance is a big issue for Sri Lankans,” says de Silva. “Banks in Sri Lanka have been borrowing from urban and rural areas, and lending the money to the city.” Sarvodaya Development Finance grants about 5,000 loans each month to “unbankable” people to start entrepreneurial ventures or as working capital for existing businesses. Its working model of providing more than just credit, like training in basic entrepreneurial skills to uplift the entire family, has been recognised internationally and is taught in universities such as Stanford and UCLA.
[pullquote]“I believe in doing good while doing well. A few good people must keep pushing the notion of social entrepreneurship and try to bring others into the fold.”[/pullquote]
“I believe in doing good while doing well,” states de Silva, while acknowledging that social entrepreneurship is still in its infancy in Sri Lanka. He provides 15 scholarships every month to economically challenged students at the University of Colombo, while directly supporting kidney patients and the visually challenged. De Silva is ever the optimist: “A few good people must keep pushing the notion of social entrepreneurship and try to bring others into the fold,” he says.
Effecting change is also the reason he started media house Capital Media four years ago, home to business magazine Echelon, business website economynext.com and, more recently, Cosmopolitan Sri Lanka. Having started out his long and varied career as a business journalist for the Sun, he knows well the power of media to influence public policy, “which is always at the forefront of my mind”. “ACCA provides the confidence to think laterally and intelligently. It has provided people like myself the strength to stand up against this big wave and say, ‘let’s do things differently’.”