29th June 1997

‘Lalana Dathin’ - a sale of work by rural women - July 5 at Sudarshi Hall

Helping them to pick up the pieces

By Anne Abayasekara

After her son, Richard de Zoysa, was snatched away from her own home and brutally killed in February 1991, Dr. Manorani Saravanamuttu left Sri Lanka and went to Britain, feeling she couldn’t bear to remain here. But very soon, she began to remember all the other mothers she had met in the course of her work, mothers who, like her, had lost their sons, and also the many widows in the South of this land whose husbands had been killed or had simply ‘disappeared’ between 1988 and 1990. She couldn’t forget them.

As she thought about them, she felt she had to do something for them. So, she came back to Sri Lanka with an idea germinating in her mind. Seeking out a few sympathetic people to form a ‘Board’, she recruited as Project Co-ordinator an able and educated young woman who was excited by the dream that Manorani shared with her of working to empower women whose lives had been shattered by tragedy, enabling them to pick up the pieces and start living positively again.

In 1992, the Centre for Family Services (CFS) was born, with Manorani at the helm, a small Board of Management, and Gloria de Silva as Project Co-ordinator. There was no fuss or fanfare and no publicity of any kind. In 1993, the Centre was duly registered and work was under way in the village of Attaragalla in the Kurunegala District with 12 widows whose spirits were at zero. "When Gloria and I first met them, they would hardly raise their heads to look at us," Manorani recalled. The husbands of these women had been victims of political violence and they and their children were shunned by their fellows.

Now, for the first time, it seemed that there was someone or some organisation that cared about them. The fact that Manorani herself had suffered a similar loss, drew them to her and gave them confidence in her.

They also learned, for the first time, that they were not alone - that there were other women in the area itself who had been through the same devastating experience. They understood one another because of their common grief and desolation. And that was how the first ‘Samithiya’ was formed in 1993.

The Centre for Family Services was committed, from the start, to take the work out into the villages, instead of expecting the women to come to Colombo or the nearest big town. It was also realized that these women had emotional needs that had to be addressed first, apart from socioeconomic needs.

A scheme to train ‘Befrienders’ and Social Facilitators who would provide the necessary support service for them was worked out and has contributed largely to the success of the long-term objective of empowerment of these women and children.

The Centre’s work aims at raising their sense of self-worth and their decision-making capacity. As Gloria now Working Director of the CFS said, "We have always encouraged them to make their own decisions and to say ‘No’ to us if they think that something we suggest, won’t work for them.

The vision of the CFS is that the women will be able to say, ‘No-one should decide for me what I should do’." There have been no handouts at any stage, since the Centre considers handouts of any kind detrimental to the philosophy of empowerment. The Centre works with them in three areas - improving their economic status through viable and sustainable income-generating projects; raising their awareness and consciousness regarding social and human rights issues through legal literacy and functional literacy programmes and workshops; providing emotional support and counselling services through the Befriender programme.

The CFS functions in 4 districts - Kandy, Kurunegala, Matara and Monaragala. There are 38 ‘samithis’ composed of 12 to 15 members each. The CFS provides loans through a revolving fund and samithi members are responsible for handling these and seeing that they are paid back. There are 13 Social Facilitators and 16 Befrienders. Several of them who have to cover vast distances, now use motobikes given by the CFS.

M.B. Rupawathie of Monaragala (she was left with three small children when her husband died some years ago) is one who makes full use of her bike and Gloria said, ‘’It’s a thrill to see her on that bike!’’

Although the original target group of the CFS was women and children who were the victims of the Southern political violence, this was soon expanded to include all women who were the heads of households, and their children.

The Centre works with both the women and children because they find it impossible to isolate one from the other. There are currently nine children’s Activity Groups being conducted - three in Monaragala, three in Kurunegala, two in Kandy and one in Matara. Of the 16 Befrienders, eight work entirely with children. Dorothy Lokubalasuriya is Children’s Programme Co-ordinator. The office and field staff now number 50.

I was privileged to visit Attaragala with Gloria about a year ago.

These women owned land, but desperately needed water if they were to cultivate anything.

When I went there, I saw the large agricultural wells that had been funded by the Netherlands Embassy.

The women I met were no longer the dispirited and despairing people to whom Gloria and Manorani had first spoken. They were smiling and confident as they showed us the produce of their land and then invited us to have some refreshment in their homes. The women in Matara, Gloria told me, owned no land and were dependent on coir-based industries. On their own, they asked the CFS for funding to follow an Agromart training course and now they happily turn out all kinds of coir products.

These women’s samithis liaise with Helpage and conduct programmes for the whole village.

In Monaragala, with Norad funding, the women saw to the building of 125 latrines in 3 villages. The Samithis operate their own bank accounts.

On Saturday, July 5, these samithis of the CFS will hold a sale and exhibition - ‘’Lalana Dathin’’ (which means, from the hands of women) - at Sudharshi, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7.

Savana Radio (the Sinhala transmission of Capitol Radio), is the official radio sponsor.

There will be agricultural products, handlooms, handicraft, coir products, food items, plants, compost in packets.

Naturally, it is hoped that the sale will be a success, but the CFS also regards the occasion as valuable in giving these rural women a chance to come to Colombo, find strength from the interaction with samithi members from distant parts, and opportunities for marketing their goods.

One person can make a difference. Through her own experience of grief and anger, Manorani reached out to help women who were far more helpless than herself. If you attend the sale, ‘’Lalana Dathin’’, on July 5th, you will see for yourself what ‘empowerment’ means.

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