India and Sri Lanka sign MoU for Women Empowerment Project in Ampara

India and Sri Lanka this week signed an MoU to set up a Women’s Community Learning Centre in Ampara, Sri Lanka. The MoU was signed at the High Commission of India by High Commissioner of India Y.K. Sinha and Ministry of Women and Child Affairs Secretary Chandrani Senaratne. The ceremony was presided over by Minister of Women and Child Affairs of Sri Lanka K.D.M. Chandrani Bandara.

The project envisages setting up a Community Learning Centre in Ampara to impart vocational training to war affected/destitute women from Ampara district in the areas of garment making and agro-food processing. The project will impart livelihood skills as well as capacity building which will lead to the socio-economic empowerment of women in the target areas. 20 Master trainees and 100 grassroot trainees will be trained under the project. The project will be implemented in two years.

The Government of India has been implementing a similar project in Batticaloa since June 2010. Under the Batticaloa project, more than 1,500 war affected/destitute women have been trained from Batticaloa District in seven vocational areas: (i) Textiles and Garments; (ii) Surface Ornamentation; (iii) Agro food processing; (iv) Computers; (v) Enterprise Development; (vi) Solar lantern and (vii) Roof rain water harvesting.

SEWA, an Indian NGO, is the implementing partner of Government of India. The project is being implemented in close consultation with the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs of Sri Lanka.