The main project

The main project ran from June 2009 to May 2011. The overarching goal of the main project was to achieve sustainable improvement in the well being, health and empowerment of women and children in Rutland, Katukele, Mookoloya and Riverdale divisions of Rahatungoda Tea Estate.

The objectives of the project are:

Capacity building

• To help women in the communities so that they can address individual, household and community issues effectively.
• To empower women to take collective action and engage with external organisations effectively.
• To increase women's ability to diversify their income.

Children's welfare

• To engage children in positive educational and recreational activities via sustainable children’s clubs.
• To increase the number of children attending school regularly.

Early childhood care and development

• To improve the nutrition of children under 5.
• To improve early childhood care and development within households.
• To improve the crèche and preschool facilities available to children in the community.

Health

• To improve knowledge of health issues in the community.
• To build a sustainable volunteer health organisation, that can educate the community in basic health matters.
• To improve environmental awareness in the community.
• To increase knowledge of effective home gardening in the community.

Project implementation

The project was implemented through various activities, including the following.

Women’s societies

Three women’s societies have been operating on the estate since December 2007, in Riverdale, Mookoloya and a joint Society for Rutland and Katukele. The women's societies meet monthly to discuss common issues and problems. All members contribute a small sum each month as a membership fee. Further training will given to all officers of women's societies. The training also gives an opportunity for women's society officers to meet their counterparts in other divisions and encourages peer learning.

Women’s societies will also partake in capacity building workshops, which are designed:

• to build capacity and equip women with the skills to deal with problems in their daily lives more effectively
• to help people in communities get along better
• to help women assert their rights.

Educational trips

There will be two educational trips, each with the capacity for 43 women. Women's society members would otherwise not have the means to take such trips. Participants will be selected by the women's societies in conjunction with HCCWF. Women who have demonstrated a strong commitment to their society and the project are expected to participate. The trips involve visiting another long running women's society who face similar issues to those on the Rahuntagoda estate, as well as visiting a place of cultural interest.

Documentation and registration

Field officers will support the women’s society officers to go through the steps necessary to become registered with the Hanguranketha Divisional Secretariat. This is important in helping to ensure that women’s societies are sustainable and impriving their legitimacy in dealing with external bodies.

Many individuals on the estate do not have appropriate identification documents such as birth certificates, marriage certificates and National Identity Cards. HCCWF will support individuals who do not hold these forms of documentation.

Vocational training

Vocational training programmes will be held for women’s society members. Four programmes will be held, each lasting 2 days. Training will be in areas requested by women’s societies. It is anticipated that training may be in the areas of:

• mushroom cultivation
• livestock rearing (chickens, goats, cows)
• soap manufacturing
• sweet making

These are areas in which it is possible for women’s society members to start small businesses in order to diversify their income as inputs for such businesses are locally available and the produce is in demand.

Early childhood care and development (ECCD)

The ECCD component of the programme aims to provide a sustainable base for high quality childhood care and development on the estate both in households and preschools.

Preparing nutritional food for infants

Mothers in the women’s societies will participate in practical workshops demonstrating how to prepare nutritional food for infants. Parents will have the opportunity to practice the cooking and take home the food they prepare for their infants. Emphasis will be placed on using ingredients which are readily available to estate residents, both in terms of supply and cost.

Outdoor equipment for crèches and pre-schools

Crèche improvement will continue with new painting of all parts of the crèche carried out in order to improve the appearance of the building and encourage regular use by parents.

Children’s clubs

Children's Clubs were set up by HCCWF at the start of the 6 month project in each division (with one club for Rutland/Katukele) and have been operating successfully.

Also, an interclub competition will be held for the children’s clubs to develop links between the clubs and increase positive activities for children to engage in and build confidence. The competition will involve different activities including drama, essay writing, speech, painting and magazines to enable all children to participate, develop their talents and learn new skills.

Educational trip for children’s clubs

150 children’s club members will participate in an educational trip with older members participating in planning the trip. Members will be encouraged to reflect on the trip in subsequent meetings in a creative manner.

Two day camp for children’s club members

Children’s club members from each of the divisions will join together for a two day camp, giving the opportunity to share ideas, experiences, discuss common issues and participate in organised sporting and creative activities.

Health

A volunteer health forum will be established staffed by volunteers from each division. Health volunteers will take responsibility for delivering health education in their own division but will work together with volunteers from other divisions to share resources and experiences via a forum which will meet quarterly.

Volunteer health assistants will also receive 3 day training encompassing a range of activities, including training of trainers training on matters of general health, particularly issues specific to the estate communities. Volunteer health assistants will use the skills and knowledge they have developed in their own training to run workshops for their women’s societies on the health issues facing their communities.

There will also be review tests for volunteer health assistants: following each training component for the volunteer health assistants, each volunteer will complete a review test to certify the knowledge and skills gained in the training. This is necessary to ensure legitimacy of the volunteer health forum and its volunteers in the eyes of their peers as well as external agencies.

Environment

Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) activities highlighted the lack of environmental awareness in the communities and a lack of knowledge on effective gardening methods. Two training programmes will address these issues by running workshops on environmental issues and methods of effectively protecting the environment, as well as a technical workshop on effective and efficient gardening methods, relevant to the local context.

Each women’s society will participate in two workshops on environmental awareness conducted by a suitable resource person, workshops are relevant and provide practical tips on how communities can improve their environment.

HCCWF will also organise an exhibition to coincide with World Environment Day. Women’s society members and children's club members will be encouraged to use their regular meetings to participate in preparation for the exhibition, for example in making posters highlighting issues related to the environment.

A gardening development programme will be carried out via the Women’s Societies to transfer technical knowledge to support home gardens. Also HCCWF will host a healthy food exhibition, which will be held in a central location on the estate for all women's society members, with the aim of further engaging women in growing their own vegetables and preparing healthy, nutritious food.