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Action Card Briefing – July 2005
The Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) project operated by Women’s Development Centre (WDC), Kandy, Sri Lanka.
At the CBR centre mentally and physically handicapped children from all ethnic and religious communities attend a variety of classes. These equip the children with life skills and some can be integrated into special units at government schools. The CBR project also works with parents, counselling and encouraging them as they bring up their handicapped children. In a society heavily influenced by Buddhist and Hindu doctrines of reincarnation, there is a particular stigma associated with handicapped people. Changing attitudes is only one outcome of the CBR project. In addition to the main centre in Kandy, CBR run smaller centres in a number of villages.
The vocational training centre run by CBR is a place where older boys learn a variety of skills: carpentry, how to make brooms, candles, flowerpots, and mats. These are sold and earn some income for the project. The boys also work in the kitchen garden. At the same site, using government buildings donated to CBR, there is a hostel for autistic and deaf children who attend a local special school.
Another major part of the work of WDC, is a shelter for girls and women at Haragama, several kilometres out of Kandy city. The shelter opened in 1994, but grew out of an ad hoc project that had begun some years earlier. The girls and women have been victims of violence, rape or incest and have all been referred there by the courts until their case is dealt with, which can easily take years. These are very vulnerable people with no resources or options available. WDC is totally opposed to abortion and encourage the mothers to keep their babies rather than give them up for adoption. The shelter, which is the only one of its kind in the country, has no mains water and there are frequent power cuts.
School age girls attend a local school, thanks to a co-operative head teacher. The shelter is an amazing place. Young women who had been rejected by their families were accepted there. People who had suffered brutality and humiliation were smiling and giggling. Girls who would have been vulnerable and easy prey for the sex trade were supporting each other, doing work in the shelter and studying.
Please support the work of the WDC at Kandy by sending a postcard to:
Mrs Pearl Stephens (Director) Women's Development Centre 61 Mulgampola Road Kandy Sri Lanka
Postage: 47p for postcard with airmail sticker 68p for postage up to 20g, also with airmail sticker
Christians Aware 2 Saxby Street, Leicester LE2 0ND, Tel/Fax 0116 2540770
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