Planting hope
In Sri Lanka women are determined to take their first steps on the road to independence, and with support from our partner, Oxfam, they are growing more, earning more, and facing a more hopeful future.
Women like Velupillai, pictured above, are starting to regain their confidence and turn their lives around. For more than two decades, women have held their families together as civil war forced more than a million people from their homes.
As they start on the road to recovery, women are putting their heart and soul into working the land again – growing rice to feed their families and earn a living.
There are challenges to face – changing and unpredictable weather patterns that can ruin a whole season’s crops, and inequality – men own much of the land and equipment.
But there is strength in numbers and this project is helping women to take control of their own small business enterprises – turning their surplus rice crop into flour, rice cakes and noodles to sell at local markets.
Equipment, training, and a whole lot of determination are a potent combination – and will give the women of eastern Sri Lanka the chance to improve their earning power, and raise their status in the community.
To help us support more women like Velupillai please consider donating to this project by clicking on the button below. Thank you.