Community Members
We would like to introduce you to some of the people we work with:
Sandya is a woman who lives in Magalle community. She is married with one son and used to depend on the income of her husband for her family's needs. When she began to work on the ECSART Handicrafts Programme she had very low level skills and said that 'most organisations provide training, but nobody gives chances to market the products.' Having worked since 2006 she is now one of the most dedicated women in the group and is happy that she can now produce for the top end market through ECSART market linkages. In addition 'this is the first time I worked alongside disabled people in my life. I thought disabled people couldnt work like us, but now my mind has changed and this group work has made me realize they also have abilities like others.' Now Sandya earns good money to supplement her husbands income and help her son in his continuing studies.
Niroshani is in Grade 9 and lives in a resettled village of tsunami-affected families. Her father passed away three years ago and her mother and siblings rely on the salary of her older brother who is in the Sri Lankan army. Due to the difficulties of making ends meet, when she joined the ECSAT Kids Club she was very behind in her studies and her mother could not afford to support her studies. Now Niroshani is one of the better students at school and also has discovered great creative talents in writing and dancing. In her writing she is always looking into new ideas and has an enquiring mind, and her school teachers have told her mother she is much better at school. After the last performance in her community, her mother cried and told us 'until now, I brought up my daughter with so many difficulties, but now I am happy and I know there are people who will help my daughter to come up in her life.'
Lakmali is a mother of two who suffered greatly during the tsunami, losing most of her neighbours and friends. In the new village she was resettled to, she felt lonely and afraid for both her own safety and that of her children. She was very suspicious of the people in neighbouring villages and wouldn’t let her daughters go out.Now Lakmali is one of the most active members of the Parents Committee of the Kids Club in her community, and says that this has helped her to make friends and also to learn to trust people and make relationships with them. She also sees the improvement in her girls – especially in the older of the two who used to be ‘backward and unsociable’. Now she says that 'I feel more secure about my children’s safety and also their potential for the future.'
Dinushika was also displaced after the tsunami and felt lost and lonely without the company of her previous friends and neighbours. She told the ECSAT staff when they first came that she wanted to leave the village because of her feelings of loneliness. When ECSAT started the elderly club, Dinushika joined and soon began to make friends again through activities such as religious observances and meetings. Now she has built up good friendships withpeople of the same age from different areas and says that 'now I am happy with my new life, my new friends and new neighbours. Now I don’t feel lonely or bored.'
*All names have been changed.