PROJECTS | Sri Lanka | Shilpa Development
Centre

Initially established to provide refuge for children displaced by the civil war, Shilpa Children's Trust (Shilpa) now provides support for displaced children, unskilled youths and impoverished women, especially single mothers.

Shilpa Development Centre provides secure shelter and protection to 50 girls displaced by war, natural disaster and family abuse. As well as a caring home environment, the girls have access to education and training, counselling, healthcare and sports and recreation. Shilpa’s primary goal is rehabilitation and, if appropriate, family reunification.

The majority of children living in the community leave school before the age of 14 to support their families through informal work. Young women and girls are often confined to their homes caring for parents, younger siblings or their own children, preventing them from earning an income. Shilpa Development Centre offers them a lifeline, providing a range of invaluable vocational training courses to unemployed and unskilled young women and mothers living in the slum communities. Shilpa also provides vocational training bursaries to teenage boys who have dropped out of school and enrolls them on suitable courses.

Following the widespread devastation caused by the 2004 tsunami, many women and girls were left with the responsibility of providing family support. Following a change in government policy, entire communities were relocated from their traditional coastal homes to inland villages, severely affecting their livelihoods. Shilpa has expanded its vocational training courses to cover these areas, so that women, young mothers and girls affected by the tsunami can develop alternative ways of earning a family income. The vocational training team now provides basic sewing and cookery courses, as well as English lessons to over 100 women and girls in coastal communities and resettlement villages. Once trained, many of these women are given micro-loans to start their own businesses, offering them a chance of a better future.

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