Work Update

Unusual Sri Lankan Women

This has been a very busy week at work with two major events for me. The first was the International Women’s Day celebration at a sports ground in Weeraketiya. This was run by my organisation, and somehow I agreed to give a short speech – in Sinhala! I put together a speech that lasted about two minutes and got help with the translation from our host family. The speech itself was an introduction to me and my project, and also some warm words about their efforts to improve the position of women in this area. I was a bit nervous before hand as the audience was over 300, but I spoke slowly and clearly and got two rounds of applause, one for speaking at all and the other for doing it in Sinhala. I don’t think I’ll be becoming a fixture on the conference circuit here any time soon though!

At the event they also gave out prizes to women who were engaged in unusual occupations in the area. This ath-amma (grandmother) is a metalworker, which is very rare for females in this area. They also gave prizes to a female engineering teacher, and various community leaders.

Here I am lighting the special lamp with the local dignitaries.

The entertainment included Kandyan style dancers, who wore the traditional masks and costumes.

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An important part of my project is to help the organisation with its planning work, and for this purpose I arranged a planning day for our staff. The group enjoyed it a lot and I think we made some progress towards making better future plans.

The language barrier is a little tricky, but Ranil helped with my translation.

Here the group are busy listing their past achievements and what they hope to achieve in the future. Their ideas were attached to the wall afterwards.

One of the challenges that they face is how to respect the long history of the organisation, but also adapt to the changing society around them. Some things in the rural villages are very permanent here, but others are changing quickly. For example thousands of women now work in garment factories producing clothes for export to the UK among others. Although the pay is low by UK standards, many women choose the factory instead of the farm.