Vishaka Women Society: Creating leadership and prosperity for Lovers Leap village of Nuwara Eliya

Anula Gamage and her family whose house was built solely due to the intervention and assistance of the Vishaka Women Society 

By Surya Vishwa 

Prosperity. How is it created? How can one tread the road that leads to its destination?

Let us contemplate on this awhile and introspect on some common beliefs on prosperity, based on what we see around us in Sri Lanka.

Many of us would have heard different versions of the joke often used about the ‘Sri Lankan hell,’ which does not need any guards unlike the ‘hells’ of other countries because every time someone tries to climb out of the ‘Sri Lankan hell,’ there will be many others to pull down the wannabe escapee. This is an entertaining fable of sorts, but of course even in these coinages, entrenched in the humorous there is a foundation of fact.

Let us get back to contemplating on the word ‘prosperity.’ In doing so let us look at how the majority of humans try to reach it. 

All of us are born to families of varying social stature and wealth. In Sri Lanka every child gets the opportunity of schooling. Some pass their exams and some fail. Those who pass attempt to get into professions which have received the label of being ‘prestigious.’ Question any child and they will generally say they want to be a ‘doctor,’ ‘lawyer,’ or ‘engineer.’ I queried about his future ambitions from a bright eight-year-old up in the high mountains of the village adjacent to the picturesque as well as majestic Lovers Leap waterfall and he replied that he wanted to be a ‘scientist.’ Another child in the same village said she wanted to be a top government official (Rajaye Loku Niladariniyak). 

Every child decides on these professions based on what they feel in their heart as aspirations. These would be influenced subtly or overtly on the opinions and ambitions of the parents or by observing the adult world around them. 

Often these adult careers are seen as tied to prosperity and recognition. A big ‘title,’ social respect, honour and of course money as well as the perks that come with a high rank profession. 

Scan the marriage proposal columns of any newspaper and this would be evident. The parents of the bride or the groom advertise the social position or qualification of their offspring in the expectation that their child would reach that high point of prosperity by marrying an individual of wealth, status or qualification.

Therefore from what we see around us in Sri Lanka, prosperity is a rather selfish journey revolving around ‘I’ and the plural ‘us’ being limited to the immediate ‘family’ circle. Prosperity can also be veiled in phantoms such as jealousy and envy. One wants to be prosperous but wish others the opposite. 

A set of extraordinary women

Now that we have thought somewhat on the above let us get to the story for this week. 

We are going to focus on a set of extraordinary women, in this country, who live in the hilly surrounding of the Lovers Leap waterfall in Nuwara Eliya. The village encircling this waterfall is also referred to as Lovers Leap. The history that got this waterfall its name is the folk belief that a pair of lovers leaped off the high cliff caught as they were in the tribulations of love. 

Once consigned solely to the wilderness, the Lovers Leap area became populated as a village in the Nuwara Eliya district only within the last six decades. Currently it is inhabited by around 300 families. At present, the villages surrounding Nuwara Eliya, are often over populated with unplanned, unsanitary housing which has contributed to polluting natures pristine waterways. One will notice a stark difference in the village of Lovers Leap. Yes, there are is some littering as one could see in diverse public places but not to the extent one sees elsewhere. 

Now let us examine the word ‘prosperity’ in how K.D. Subadra Kumarihami, one of the two initial founders of the Lovers Leap Vishaka Kantha Samithiya sees it. This women’s society was begun in 1990 and it has since then changed the entire status quo of this village, transforming poverty into wellbeing, happiness, courage and wealth.

“Miss, what is prosperity? We cannot just think of ourselves and get on to do well in life when there are many others who need similar upliftment, isn’t it? Therefore myself and another of our neighbours who has since become a Buddhist nun, thought to ourselves that we will gather few women and start a society consisting of women. We set a membership of Rs. 5 and we thought of all the businesses that women can do in Lovers Leap. Here flowers and vegetation grow easily. Pears grow abundantly and there is much opportunity for food production. Therefore we started this society under the motto ‘Stronger Together’ but we also laid a firm foundation in our minds that for whatever we start we must first have the Lovers Leap area as a clean and beautiful place. This is challenging as the Municipal lorry comes only around once a month here,” she explains. 

She points out that unlike other places, they, who live nestled in these mountains and next to one of the most beautiful waterfalls of Sri Lanka do not throw their garbage around.

“I was very strict on this when I started the women’s society as one of the rules we follow to date is that we keep the garbage inside our premises for weeks until the Municipal lorry comes, even if it means that our children get sick. We do not throw out our refuse into these beautiful environs,” Subadra emphasises. 

Pursuing a prosperity that is all-inclusive

This is the cornerstone of the ideology with which the Vishaka Women’s Society was begun, pursuing a prosperity that is all-inclusive, with the understanding that if nature is vanquished the core of prosperity of man is impacted. (The issue of garbage collection in Nuwara Eliya, this page has commenced writing and will continue to do so). 

The name Vishaka had been chosen for the Lovers Leap women society, to honour Vishaka, the historical female philanthropist and patron of the Buddha.

Today this society has re-created in entirety the meaning of prosperity and Subadra who is now 76 years old, has possibly done more for her village than most Sri Lankan Government officials whose salary is paid to do such work for the citizenry. Shortly after being established, three decades ago, this society had managed to get roads built and pushed the cause for the supply of electricity. The society collects an annual sum of Rs. 1,200 from its members which number to around 80. The accumulation of these amounts have been used for the provision of many loans for the women and thereby generated income for both the membership holding households and the society. 

Among the major achievements of this community venture is the complete capacity development of housewives struggling with burdens such as living in extended families, insufficiency of their husband’s salary for running the household and not having sufficient skill building training or capital to start small or medium enterprises.

From 1990 to today, the Vishaka Women Society, under the invincible leadership of Subadra has made women the main breadwinner of their families, leading them to create lucrative entrepreneurship ventures, getting banks such as the Cargills Bank to partner with the Kandurata bank to provide housing and SME development loans. This Women Society has constructed a sturdy two-storeyed community building (Praja Shalawa) and above all has worked with the State authorities to launch one of the main food centres in Nuwara Eliya. 

Lady Chef was established four years ago as one of the main eateries in Nuwara Eliya town thanks to few progressive Government officials who interacted with agencies such as European Union, Global Communities Sri Lanka and the USAID to put up the building on State land in which this comfortable, airy and cheerful café is situated near the Pradeshiya Lekam Karyalaye (Divisional Secretariat) and the Nuwara Eliya Police station. 

Although it is the Lovers Leap women’s society that was initially instrumental in paving the way for this eatery to be launched, the venture encompassed also women from diverse other areas of the district including Boralanda, Kalapura and Shanthipura to name a few. One of the stipulations of the donor agencies had been that all Sri Lankans should be included and thus the female chefs of the café include Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims.

Lady Chef Restaurant

The Lady Chef Restaurant has around 30 women as its team where they prepare an assortment of food such as rolls, cutlets, pattis, milk rice, pancake, helapa, rice and curry, ulundu wade, parippu wade, fruit salad, fruit juice, soup, different type of kendha (broth) including kurakkan, kola (leaf based) and sago (sau) kendha. Although the list seems long this is actually a fraction of what they serve. There are also cupcake, chocolate cake, whole fruits such as gooseberry, strawberry and pepino (highly anti cancerous and considered the apples of Nuwara Eliya). The outer area of this café also has a separate section for plants. 

The food is prepared and brought by the women by 8 a.m. and throughout the day the supply is kept replenished until the café closes at 5 p.m. All food is brought in public transport. It is indeed a beautiful sight in the morning to see the small bus plying from Lovers Leap by 7:30 a.m. carrying in it the ever-smiling lady chefs of the Vishaka Women Society and the food made by them.

The café was headed till recently by Subadra the founder and live wire of the Vishaka Women Society. Now the café is managed by Umayangani Seneviratne from Nuwara Eliya town who is the newly elected President of the above mentioned women society.

“We are now planning a series of trainings such as in communication and personality development to help our team to do their work here better and also to assist them to carve out their independent businesses even better,” says Uma whose very assertive personality makes me quip that she should have joined the police! 

“How strange you should say it. My father was in the police but did not want me to follow suit,” she laughs. What is evident is that under her leadership unity as well as understanding amongst the women is kept firm just as it was when Subadra headed it. 

High discipline of comradeship

“All feedback received from customers are taken seriously. Within the society we never encouraged envy and gossip. Therefore we stick firmly to maintaining high discipline of comradeship. Meanwhile if a particular food is not so tasty on a particular day and we get a comment on it by the consumer, we inform the chef concerned. We need more professional training such as in accounting, and we proceed in confidence,” she smiles. 

Subadra, although limiting her visits to the café when compared to when she was younger, continues in uplifting the village in all her endeavours. Under her leadership her team also supply food to the Pradeshiya Sabha canteen.

Enter any time into this Lady Chef café and it is engulfed in a vibe of prosperity. Each day two females take turns as the accountant and handles the ‘cashier work.’ The items purchased by those who enter the café is meticulously written down under the name of the chef concerned. The cleaning up and ensuring the place is neat and tidy is done by the chef team of the café. Today as this writer visited this place, Subani Paranagama, one of the members from Shanthipura was picking up the trash dumped in the bordering drainage by Sri Lankans whose minds are not yet clean enough to be disciplined as per garbage disposal. 

Subani’s house in Shanthipura is well built and much of the financing she has raised through her interaction with Subadra and the women society. She is the main supplier of milk rice to the café and I ensure that I eat a couple of pieces which are certainly addictive.

Some women have difficult spouses who either neglect their household duties or become victims of vices. Some of them have very supportive husbands such as the partner of Anula Gamage, Upul Dewasurendran, who is a cooperative manager and helps her to cook the food. He then transports the produced food to the café en-route to work.

“Come in Miss. See this house,” she says when I visit her. The house located on the path to the Lovers Leap waterfall is half built but looks perfectly good for a venture such as home tourism. She reveals that she wants to share the ample garden space, bordering the Lovers Leap route, passed by many tourists, with other women in the area to introducing a collective market.

“This can benefit about 4 to 5 families, with these family members supplying food and coffee more suited to foreign palate,” she states highlighting that there are many families near her vicinity who cannot construct their own home. 

“Can you imagine that four years ago myself, my husband and my two children did not have a house to live in. We had this land belonging to my husband’s family but we did not have a separate roof over our heads. We were living with our relatives. Mrs. Subadra met me, told me to grow plants in a business focused manner, encouraged me to supply food to schools, and to supply food to the Lady Chef Café. She first got me a loan of Rs. 10,000 and then two lakhs and the housing loan I got through her facilitation of Rs. 1 million. I do not have words to express my thanks to her. Now I want to emulate her and help others who were helpless like I was,” says an emotional Anula.

What true leadership should be

This brings us again and again to the word prosperity and its meaning. It connects us via this word to what true leadership should be. In a country that is attempting to clean out corruption, disunity, lethargy and inefficiency along with the national wide littering mindset of civilians, this Vishaka Women Society is a beacon of hope for us all to rise to our highest potential as human beings. 

Visiting the house of K.D. Subadra Kumarihami one finds oneself in a beautiful construction of two sections that looks like a typical British country house, part of which is leased out for a tourism venture. I reflect on how much of hard work this slim agile woman would have put to make these walls as they are. Her house is a place where the Vishaka Women’s Society and members of the Lady Chef café meet often. They gather here to discuss the diverse other societies they run such as the Grama Sangwardana Samithiya, (Village Development Society), Kantha Govi Sangamaya (Women Farming Society) and the Mal Sangamaya (Flower Growers Association).

In the two hours I spend at the house of Subadra I learn also about the Maranadara Samithiya (Funeral Assistance Society), Fruit Growing Society and so on. When I appear at Subadra’s doorstep, she is busy doing the accounts of the Maranadara Samithiya, assisted by another member of the society.

“All this takes a lot of time. Since we handle other people’s money we ensure that we handle the finances perfectly. It is tough but it has to be done properly,” smiles Subadra. I ask her if she does not feel tired and she quips that she has no time to feel tired!

It is learnt that the current Municipal Commissioner has visited the Lovers Leap village in a fact finding visit after assuming duties end of last year. He has promised to return so that he can discuss further with citizen groups on what can be done for the development of the area as well as solve the garbage crisis. 

This brings us to expand how we look at the word prosperity which is linked to land. The land of a nation has to be kept clean and it has to be used for public good as was the land on which Lady Chef now stands. If land is held by the State it is on behalf of the people, to be used for the welfare of the people. 

This article captures just a fleeting glimpse of this extraordinary group of women whose diligent briskness in work, selflessness in helping others and prudence in not indulging in pettiness such as gossip or jealousy, has given the word ‘prosperity,’ a whole new meaning.

Certain personalities such as Commissioners, District Secretaries and Grama Niladaris are mentioned in the conversations with these women. Some have been keen to help, some others indifferent but somehow the insistence and persistence of this women society have resulted in whoever the State official finally succumbing to the earnestness of these females and adhering to their requests pertaining to common good.

We end this piece of writing here but we will continue speaking to the Vishaka Women Society to obtain their views on how the Nuwara Eliya Season could be strategised from a community point of view and celebrated as a means of alleviating poverty of the district and supporting entrepreneurship development of the locale as a whole. 

Note: The Harmony Page will be creating a Women Empowerment, Sustainability, Recycling, Art, and Entrepreneurship initiative in collaboration with S. Mangalika, the Nuwara Eliya Public Library Chief Librarian to be carried out on 8 March. The objective is to provide a base for attempting to solve the Nuwara Eliya garbage problem by turning household waste into art and interior décor.