Projects

 1. Mobilising women for Empowerment (ME)

Location

30 villages in Balangoda and Weligepola Divisional Secretariats of Ratnapura District. Balngoda and Weligepola are situated at 1500 feet above sea level and home to small and large scale tea plantations.These areas are rich in biodiversity and have two very beautyful water falls. Balangoda is the birth place of the World’s First Woman Prime Minister. Main livelihood of majority of the population is agriculture.

Small groups
Kantha Shakthi started Mobilizing rural women for Empowerment (ME) in the two areas mentioned above in 1998. The process of Mobilising for Empowerment starts with 6-12 women forming in to groups and building solidarity among women.

Once the groups are formed Kantha Shakthi motivates each group to save and set up a group fund. Building solidarity among women is an important aspect of Kantha Shakthi work. Women of the groups learn financial management, and develop skills such as speaking, singing, acting, dancing and writing.
Kantha Shakthi takes a keen interest to improve women’s skills knowledge education, and health and develop their leadership capability.

Kantha Shakthi Development Collectives
Improving women’s economy, standard of life and well being is of utmost importance. Micro credit at two levels are available to women to obtain loans to invest in economic ventures. First, credit from group fund is available at any day any time. In addition women have access to larger credit from Kantha Shakhti Development Collectives.

2. Economic, Political and Social Empowerment of Women Affected by the Tsunami Matara/Tangalle

Objectives of the project :

Project Goal
To enable women affected by the tsunami to be empowered socially, politically and economically, allowing them to take leadership roles within family and community.

Specific Objective
To increase women’s income, enhance women’s self-perception, self-confidence and personal strength with a view to enable them to face challenges in daily life.

Locations: Polhena in Matara District / Thangalle in Hambanthota District

This project aiming to empower and rebuild the lives of women affected by the tsunami, is 2 ½ years mature by 30th June 2007. Villages outside the original project areas have extended invitations for Kantha Shakthi to introduce the project in their areas. Social mobilizers have begun work in two villages in Tangalle already, while plans are underway to expand to a new village in Polhena in August 2007.

Activities:

• Micro Finance to enable women to re-start their livelihood occupations
• Social and recreational Activities
• Community Forums
• Vocational/Skills training
• Business Training

 3. Project on Economic and Personal Development of Children

Children’s Development Project.

The Children’s development project (CDP) started in 2004 along with the formation of the Deepthi Children’s Organization but with a different outlook. The children grew vegetables in their gardens or in the small vegetable plots of their parents and these vegetables were sold in a fair organized by them. The money was then collected as savings.

Taking this in to a new dimension the Butterfly’s Organization of New Delhi introduced the CDP and gave the Deepthi Children capital to start the project. The main objective of the project was to uplift the standards of these children by empowering them. The money they got from selling vegetables was saved and was entered in a book that every individual child has. The money that they save and the seed money that was given by Butterfly was put in an adult bank account to gather interest.

Moreover the children are entitled to two kinds of advances.

• Welfare advances
• Developmental advances

The children can apply for an advance which will go through an advance committee consisting of children and then after the advance is approved it will be given. The child who takes the advance has to pay it back within an agreed time period. The importance of this project is that it is run completely by the children.

There are currently 12 CDP branch offices operating in the area and there are 313 children who are apart of the network. There are 12 managers one for each branch and they are in charge of all activities such as maintaining cash book, ledger book and, the savings of the children. There are 2 adult facilitators who look-over the project and deposit the money in the bank.

The children were given training on how to maintain accounts by a workshop held by the Butterfly Organization.