Empowering Marginalized Women in Sri Lanka

An IMHO appeal on behalf of the Women’s Education & Research Centre (Sri Lanka)

We need your support!

REQUEST: 12 trishaws @

USD $3,200/each

PLEDGES: 2 trishaws

NEED:

Support for the remaining 10

trishaws We are seeking either individual donors to sponsor a trishaw in-full or contributions towards the total project goal (USD $32,000). These women will pay back the cost of their trishaws from their earnings over time, so that more women may benefit in the future.

Skills Training & Empowerment for Women Trishaw Drivers

The International Medical Health Organization (IMHO) is happy to lend its support to a project designed to empower marginalized women from various disadvantaged background through training and the provisioning of a trishaw (or “3-wheeler”). This project was initially orchestrated and launched earlier this year by the Women’s Education and Research Centre (www.wercsl.org), a Sri Lanka-based organization committed to realizing gender equality and equity. The first few phases of this project have already been completed, but perhaps the most important part of the project (providing trishaws to the now trained women drivers) has not yet materialized. We are seeking donors to support this final stage of the project. Of the total 12 trishaws that are needed, funds for just two have been raised to-date. The remaining 10 women are still in need of trishaws. They will repay the cost of these trishaws to the local organization (WERC) from 50% of their earnings until the debt is paid off in order for more women to benefit from this same program later.

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NOVEMBER 2011 INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL HEALTH ORGANIZATION

The overall objective of this project is aimed at economic independence of marginalized women. The project also takes care of other fundamental requisites for a total transformation through providing them training in skills development

and an awareness program on women’s rights and development of leadership skills. This is also a step towards poverty alleviation.

Project Background Sri Lanka has been in a state of war for the past twenty-five years, and this has caused a large community of war widows. When the Tsunami tidal waves struck the shore it too left a great number of young girls to provide for themselves and their families. The combination of war and natural disaster has pushed women further into poverty. Women are the ones worst affected by poverty, and the disasters have pushed them into an even worse position. The economical and social situation is such that women are the worst exploited. Their conditions are extremely poor in the urban slums and plantations. Many women in the slums are forced into prostitution by their husbands or due to the family burden after the abandonment of their husbands. Many plantation girls are eternally limited to the profession of tea plucking, becoming a profession by inheritance and severely limited their personal development. General Objectives Marginalized women from the urban poor, women from war-affected female-headed households, and young girls from the plantation sector will be the beneficiaries of this project. Fifteen women from a multi-ethnic, multi-religious background, covering women from different marginalized categories will be trained in this project. They and their immediate and extended families would benefit from this project and their lives will undergo a significant change as a result. This project will become a pilot project and would encourage women from

other districts also to struggle against female discrimination. Specific Objectives Providing skills training for income generation for these women would give them an opportunity to become self-employed and economically independent. Economic independence would lead to social and personal independence, as well enhancing self-sustainability. The main focus is on creating a better future for the lives of these marginalized women. Create awareness about human rights and women’s rights among marginalized women, and make them gender sensitive. Women normally play a passive role in decision-making and adopt negative attitude about themselves, this is not going to help neither them nor their families to progress in life. Therefore WERC deemed it most appropriate to educate the marginalized women about their rights – their right to resist abuse or exploitation, their right to make decisions or at least to make their contribution while making decisions, their right to claim what is due for them, their right to earn their living, etc. In short, to uplift the women’s status, and provide them the opportunity to live as ‘decent’ (according to the social set-up) human beings with dignity and honor in their community.

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NOVEMBER 2011 INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL HEALTH ORGANIZATION

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Expected Outcomes: • These women become economically independent. • To help these women to start their own business and fend for their own lives from the income generated from the skills they had gained from our project. • They will be equipped to pave the way for a better future for themselves and build a better future for their children. This is a measure towards poverty alleviation. • We also hope that this could lay a foundation for a community system, where the trained marginalized women establish themselves in business and then form a system where they train more women like them and help them start a new business – the community itself finds its own remedy for poverty. Rationale This profession could be considered as one of the most untraditional for women in our society. This needs great deal of courage among women to take-up this profession and do well. To build-up this courage great deal of legal awareness creation and gender sensitization will be required, and would be provided. This would be the first step towards self-reliance and economic independence for these women. There is also a social need for women drivers and women driven trishaws in the present socially corrupted situation. Women are a bit reluctant to make use of trishaw travelling because they do not feel safe, especially young women who are subjected to sexual harassment by male trishaw drivers. The hectic driving of the drivers has always been a problem for the other drivers and passengers. Their irresponsibility has cost many lives. The parents have become very reluctant to send their children to school by trishaws and school vans, although they are the only mode of

transport that could take them to school in time, and without being pushed and mishandled in the public transport. Women who have their own children might be more responsible and careful with the children they take, and the parents would see them as more reliable and safe to travel with. There have also been repeated requests from parents to train women trishaw drivers to overcome the stress they undergo due to the hectic driving of the usual drivers. Previous Attempts Previously we did this project with the assistance of another women’s organisation Kantha Shakthi to identify prospective beneficiaries from the poverty risk group/unsteady income group, women with lower life expectations, tsunami affected women, and war-affected women for training in three wheeler driving. When these women were interviewed they were asked how they would benefit from this training, and they had a great deal of benefits to discuss about. They said that they would be self-employed at the same time they would be able to help their family to transport their productions to the market as most of the families are involved in cultivation. They also said that they would be enabled to help the others out during an emergency. They seemed sure that they could get a steady income through transporting primary children, and taking regular hires for hospitals and clinics and offices. 8 women were identified for this training, two of them dropped-out due to medical reasons, four have completed their training and have obtained their license and have started to drive their own trishaws and making an income of their own.

All donations made to the International Medical Health Organization (IMHO) are tax-deductible (tax ID# 59-3779465), and a tax receipt will be promptly issued to you after receipt of your donation. Please make checks payable to “IMHO” and earmark for “Sri Lanka Women’s Trishaws Project”, then mail them to:

IMHO Treasurer PO Box 61265 Staten Island, New York 10306

You may make an online contribution at www.TheIMHO.org.

Methodology and Principal Strategies 1. Advertising the project (COMPLETE) This project would be open on an all-island basis. This programme would be advertised in the print media in Sinhala and Tamil primarily, and then through the community-based social services organisations and women’s NGOs we would be able to reach-out to the women badly in need of assistance to come out of their dungeons. 2. Selection of women (COMPLETE) Twelve women from different categories – Single urban poor women, sex workers, [and women from the outstations] plantation girls (from the Central province of Sri Lanka) and war-widows (from the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka) – inter-ethnic and inter-faith group would be selected with the help of social organizations and institutions working with marginalized women. 3. Ancillary courses (COMPLETE)

The first week would be entirely dedicated to gender sensitization, leadership training women’s rights awareness creation and

management skills training. Basic management skills and accounting skills would be useful when they start their own business. 4. Skills training (COMPLETE) These women would be given training in trishaw driving through a driving school, and they will be assisted to purchase their own trishaws after getting their licence. From the second week the participants would be provided the skills training. The training would go on till they all are efficient drivers and until they get their licence. 5. Monitoring There would also be one month of monitoring to see how these women start their business and in activities of getting the bank leasing for their business (eg.: monitoring the way the women make decisions and invest and pay their installments) The final step is getting these trained women the vehicles they need to start working and earning an income. Help make this a reality for these deserving women today!

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INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL HEALTH ORGANIZATION NOVEMBER 2011