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Livelihoods for
the Poor and Vulnerable |
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Small and Micro Enterprises |
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Since its
inception, PRDA’s main thrust has been to enhance the economic
status of the poor and vulnerable families in rural communities.
Several programmes were geared towards achieving this objective
and they included capacity building training in micro and small
entrepreneurship development, vocational and technical training,
micro finance programmes ranging from revolving loan funds at
community level to comparatively larger loans provided through a
community managed Enterprise Promotion Trust (EPT) and
commercial banks, introduction of appropriate technology,
facilitation of market linkages etc. More than 1000 rural women
in the Puttalam and Gampaha districts benefited from PRDA’s
livelihood development programmes and are engaged in diverse
forms of micro enterprise such as food preparation, handicraft
production, dress-making, small-scale service centres, food
processing, trading, agriculture, animal husbandry etc. These
micro entrepreneurs generate supplementary incomes to their
families. Of these women entrepreneurs, more than 400 have
graduated to the level of small entrepreneurs with stable levels
of production and linkages to markets outside their villages. |
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Restoring Tsunami Affected
Livelihoods
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In the tsunami
affected communities of Mawella and Mirissa in the south of Sri
Lanka, PRDA supported more than 600 families to restore their
lost livelihoods.
Priority
was placed on women headed households, very poor families and
the families with disabled members.
The type of support provided included both
material assistance and cash grants. The value of the assistance
provided for the tsunami affected families exceeded US Dollars
250,000. |
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Sewing machines for dress-makers in Mirissa |
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Certificates awarded for trainees (Mirissa) |
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Support for a retail grocery |
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Support for Small-Scale Fishery Sector |
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For the
small-scale fishermen in Mawella who lost their boats and
fishing gear in the tsunami, PRDA provided 26 boats; 35 outboard
motor engines, and 32 fishing nets. The total value of the
assistance provided was around US Dollars 160,000. Also, a
number of retail fish traders were supported to revive their
businesses by providing them with motor cycles and push cycles.
Nearly 25 fish traders received push cycles and motor cycles in
support of their business, the total value of which was around
US Dollars 22,000. |
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Motor cycles for fish traders in Mawella |
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Boats with engines for fishermen in Mawella |
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Support for Small-Scale Prawn
Farmers |
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In the early
1990s, when the corporate sector started acquiring large tracks
of lagoon adjacent land in the Puttalam district for prawn
cultivation using high technology, as an alternative, PRDA
mobilized lagoon-adjacent local communities to engage in
small-scale prawn farming using cost-effective simple
production techniques. |
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A
small-scale prawn farm |
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Acquisition of land around lagoons by outside
businesses destroyed the livelihood opportunities of the local
communities who largely depended on lagoon fishing and the
produce from the lagoon-adjacent lands. These lands were legally
owned by the State but were used by the local communities as a
common property resource for grazing their animals, obtaining
firewood as well as timber to build houses. The myth that prawn
cultivation can only be a large scale, capital intensive
operation requiring high levels of investment and sophisticated
technology was challenged by PRDA’s initiative to introduce
simplified forms of prawn farming technologies that can be
managed by small farmers. In order to facilitate investment
capital required by these small farmers, PRDA was able to
establish a guarantee fund with a private commercial bank which
extended credit facilities to them. 52 farmers started
small-scale prawn farms and within a very short span of time,
they were able to move up the social ladder with high incomes
generated by their prawn farming activity. Furthermore, these 52
farms generated a large number of direct and indirect employment
opportunities in these communities. PRDA’s initiative to
introduce simplified technologies and appropriate credit schemes
for
small
scale prawn farming
enterprises was extensively
supported by a number of international development agencies. |
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Pol-matolu and Banana Fibre Based
Handicrafts |
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As a source of
livelihood for rural women in poor families, PRDA took the
initiative of introducing simple technologies for producing
marketable handicrafts out of pol-matolu (fibrous sleve of the
coconut tree) and banana fibre (extracted from the trunk of the
banana plant). Both these technologies were new to the Sri
Lankan handicraft sector. Pol-matolu based handicraft technology
was acquired from Thailand through a peasant exchange programme
, while the banana fibre based handicraft technology was
transferred from the State of Kerala in South India. Several
women in both the Puttalam and the Gampaha districts learned
these technologies, adapted the designs to suit the local
conditions and started producing a variety of handicrafts
wherever the raw materials were locally available in abundance.
As the handcrafted products made from pol-matolu and banana
fibre became popular in both local as well as in overseas
markets, a group of women in the Puttalam district with
facilitation from PRDA was able to enter the international
markets with their pol-matolu handicrafts. Pol-matolu
handicraft production continues to remain a source of livelihood
for women in the Puttalam district to this day. |
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A
handicraft producer |
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Handicrafts turned out of Pol-matolu |
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