Women’s Development Centre

The Women’s Development Centre (WDC) became a registered organization in 1986, following approximately ten years of working with women and children in a more voluntary manner. WDC is one of the leading women’s organizations in Sri Lanka collaborating with several networks and spread over ten different districts.

Since its inception, WDC has engaged with issues of gender based violence (GBV) including domestic violence and violence against children. The organization has a strong background in empowering women and children by devising a dynamic and holistic approach of prevention, intervention, rehabilitation and advocacy for their development. Children are the key beneficiaries of all WDC programmes. 70% of the residents in the Crisis Centre Programme are girls below the age of 18 and 75% of the Community Based Rehabilitation Programme are also children (both boys and girls).

The WDC is a pioneer in crisis intervention and has directly engaged in intervention work for over 20 years. The WDC runs a crisis centre/shelter for girls and women who have faced sexual abuse or are at risk of facing GBV. WDC’s Crisis Intervention Programme is developed as an alternative model to the detention centres run by the Government. WDC has a long history in community based rehabilitation (CBR) activities. Currently, the WDC runs CBR Centres in nine Divisional Secretariats in the Kandy District with day care, pre-schools and other services. The CBR staff provide speech training, behavioral modification, sign language training, physiotherapy and also offer skills training for the differently-abled to be self-supporting in their own communities.

The community development programme functions largely as the training and prevention arm of the WDC. Community development activities reach rural and poverty stricken populations and supports capacity through various training programmemes. Developed as a part of the community development programme, the Network Programme has grown rapidly. WDC formed the Network of Women’s Organisations (NOW) composed of women’s forums with member CBOs in different parts of Sri Lanka to create links between the different ethno-religious groups to respond as a safety net to the direct violence women suffered due to war and the widening gap among them. NOW partner forums are located in Matale, Batticaloa, Vavuniya, Kurunagala, Anuradhapura, Akkaraipattu, Ampara, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Galle, Jaffna and Vanni.

Through the network WDC has had remarkable impact in minimising GBV, promoting co-existence and gender empowerment in the midst of emergency, war and rights violations. WDC also implemented extensive emergency relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction activities during and after the tsunami in the areas of Batticaloa, Ampara and Galle. During the war related emergency in the North and East, WDC was among the few local NGO‟s allowed to carry out immediate relief assistance as well as several welfare centres for IDPs in Vavuniya. The network focuses on GBV and peace building as core issues while holding CBR, HIV/AIDS, food security and environmental friendly community development as cross cutting issues.

Click here to go to the Women’s Development Centre website.