Wilpotha´s women´s village, school and pre-school
Project manager: Kjell Arvidssson kaconsulting@telia.com
Wilpotha's strong women!
Wilpotha is located a few hours´ drive, north-east of Colombo. Wilpotha Ithururm Parishramaya (WKIP) Women´s Savings Effort started about thirty years ago, when a woman, Karunawathie Menike, initiated a savings account for the women in the village, where she lived. Despite strong opposition from land owners and from others, the movement grew strong. This collective is now a center for education of adults. At present, 100 children go to pre-school in five villages in the area.
200 young people are engaged in Children´s Society. The purpose is, in addition to theoretical studies, to teach democratic thinking, and how to organize and run associations. Children´s Society organizes various activities, like studies of environmental issues, visits to historic places as well as art competition. A large part of Children´s Society is financed by SFCSL.
Wilpotha works for the best of the children
The pre-schools in Wilpotha, north of Colombo, celebrate the many national holidays with different activities like: Theater, carnivals, singing and music. Here, SFCSL supports five pre-schools with 110 children. Ten teachers work here and one of them finished higher education in 2008.
SFCSL also contributes to seven local Children´s Clubs, reaching 400 children and young people. The children meet at least twice a month, they have debates, art competitions and other activities like games and festivals. Two of the clubs have received volley-ball equipment, and they compete with each other.
Once a month, all clubs visit handicapped people in the village. They help out with gardening and cooking. In order to encourage learning how to work with the concept help for self-help, the clubs plant trees and they take care of cultivation.
The children have worked with national traditions by means of puppet show. They have also worked with cultural typicals regarding behavior and human treatment. The puppet show has got great attention. A national TV channel has visited the children and they have made a film.
A theater group of 26 children and young people have performed for a larger audience, describing life of children in the village.
Christina Riddebäck
President
Articles and reports
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Report from Wilpotha - the strong women village # 2
On February 13, 2012 I was again back to Wilpotha. This time it was a large group of people including people from the board of SFCSL.
Wilpotha was the first leg of our tour. The main purpose of the visit was that the Board of SFCSL should be informed about activities in general and the two-years development project "Capacity development and attitude change" in particular.
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Enclosed is the annual report (WKIP, to 31th December 2011) describing the first fiscal year. The report's last page is a summary of the activities that are completed during the year and the number of attendees.
Read more >>>
Kjell Arvidsson
Project Manager
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A very affecting reading, lots of photos!
Report of the Capacity Building Project of WKIP, to 31th December 2011
Capacity Development & Attitude Change - Women’s Savings Effort,
Wilpotha 2011
Background:
Wilpotha is a remote village in the Puttalam district. Agriculture is the most important economic activity in the area. The main crops cultivated in the area include coconut, cashew and onion. Fruits such as banana and mango, and vegetables such as chilli are also grown on an unplanned scale. As there is no irrigation facility available in the area, people depend solely on rain and ground water for their agricultural needs. During the dry season, ground water dries up with no rain and agriculture becomes a thing in the past. Read >>> the whole report
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Report from Wilpotha – the strong women´s village # 1
On the fourth of February, the Independence day I was invited to visit the strong women´s village, managed by the charismatic and strong woman Menike Karunawathie.
Together with our local “expert” Harshani Samarajeewa and our driver, we left for Wilpotha, situated about 100 km north-east of Colombo. >>> Read more
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Report of the Capacity Building Project of WKIP, 15th June to 15th September 2011
June 2011
- Received funds from SFCSL on 9th of June 2011.
- Discussed with Ms Harshani regarding the project and had two meetings with Dr Sarath Buddhadasa of Business Consultancy Services, on conducting a planning workshop for the 2 year Capacity Building Project.
- Had a meeting with Business Consultancy Services (BCS) and Ms Harshani on developing a questionnaire for the baseline study. BCS provided the questionnaire which was field tested and revised. Ms. Karunawathi of WKIP, trained village women’s society leaders, on how to expedite the survey and how to fill the questionnaire. 150 baseline interviews were conducted by 12 women from the villages. Read more >>> June - September 2011
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2 year development project to Wilpotha
After a pre-study during 2010 together with our partner WKIP “the strong women´s village” and its charismatic leader Menike Karunawathie, we prepared a proposal for a two-year development project. It has now been approved by Forum Syd. >>> Read more