The 6-month project

Objectives

The Rahatungoda Tea Estate 6-month project ran from October 2008 to April 2009. The objectives of the 6-month project were:

• support the establishment of four women’s societies and four children’s clubs
• develop the capacity of the implementing organisation (Hanguraketha Childrens Care Women's Foundation, HCCWF)
• learn more about the project areas
• develop strong relationship with stakeholders and community members
• learn about the needs of the beneficiary community

Activities

The following activities were completed:

• field officer training
• regular women's society and children's club meetings
• training women's society officers
• building the capacity of the women's societies
• distributing sports equipment to children's clubs
• making children aware of their rights and responsibilities
• making parents much more aware of the importance of education for their children and how it can help improve their lives
• creche and preschool repairs in Riverdale and Mookoloya divisions
• establishing children's libraries
• training library volunteers
• early childhood care and development training for mothers.

Due to activities of other NGOs in the area, SLCT and HCCWF decided not to implement a micro-finance element to the project. The 6-month project showed that there were problems with the women's society and children's club in the Rahatungoda Division. There was a low level of participation in both of them leading to concerns that this would limit the impact of the two as a forum for HCCWF to operate from.

A further 6-month project was carried out in the Rahuntagoda division to try to solve these problems. If this did not work, the Rahuntagoda division would have been dropped from the project. However, the project was completed successfully and the Rahatungoda Division was re-integrated into the main project.