India and Sri Lanka to extend assistance to Women in Batticaloa
India and Sri Lanka have agreed to extend till June 2016 the ongoing project to assist war affected/poor/destitute women in Batticaloa. In 2010, both countries had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to set up Women's Trade Facilitation and Community Learning Centres in Batticaloa, with SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) of India as the implementing agency, at a cost of SLR 203 million. An Addendum to the MOU to extend the project till June 2016 was signed on March 26, 2015 at the High Commission of India by . Y.K. Sinha, High Commissioner of India, and Ms. Sudharma Karunaratne, Secretary, Ministry of Women's Affairs, in the presence of Ms. K.D.M.Chandrani Bandara, Minister of Women's Affairs.
So far, 40 war affected / destitute women from Batticaloa District have been trained in India by SEWA as Master Trainers under a Training of Trainers (ToT) progamme, covering seven vocational subjects: (i) Textiles and Garments; (ii) Surface Ornamentation; (iii) Agro food processing; (iv) Computers; (v) Enterprise Development; (vi) Solar lantern; and (vii) Roof rain water harvesting. In addition, 50 women have undergone management training in India. The master trainers trained in India have further trained more than 940 grass root trainees at the Centres set up in Batticaloa.
The Addendum signed today provides for training another 25 executive committee members and master trainers, in addition to 250 grass root war affected/poor/destitute women from the Batticaloa region, in the areas of textiles &garments, food processing and information and communication technology.In view of its success, the project was extended till June 2016 at the request of the Sri Lankan Government.. The project is likely to be expanded to other areas like Ampara and the Northern Province.
