Courtroom Visit

Posted by Ellen on Thursday, November 27, 2008

On Wednesday April and I visited a Magistrate Courthouse in Homagama, and met with Additional Magistrate Judge Wimalasena. We arrived before court was in session to talk with Judge Wimalasena about the current legal landscape for women and children in Sri Lanka, and where he thought Emerge could help the most. Then, we observed an hour and a half of court proceedings. Wednesday is "maintenance day," where maintenance is paid from one individual to another, generally for child support or neglect. April and I watched what seemed like 30 different cases go by in less than two hours.

I have a hard time conceptualizing things until I actually see them with my own eyes, so to sit in the courtroom and watch how cases were managed allowed me to better understand what the girls of Ma-Sevana go through. All of the girls are currently involved in the Sri Lankan legal system, in various states of trial, so getting an inside glimpse into how courts here run was both interesting and valuable.

It was also useful to gather information about the Sri Lankan legal system as a whole, and Judge Wimalasena was incredibly helpful in explaining how the courts run and listing specific Acts we should research. A lot of the work I have done in the past month has been very detailed and specific: from changing the way the bead workshops run to developing Emerge Global's 2009 budget. Being able to take a step back and look at the big picture was not only refreshing, but helped me clarify my thinking as to where Emerge should be focusing its time and energy here in Sri Lanka.

On a different note, this will be my last blog post "from the field" for about a month. I head back to the USA on Monday, and look forward to seeing a lot of you there!


Until then,
Ellen Read more »

April and Ellen, the Sri Lankan Dream Team

Posted by Ellen on Monday, November 24, 2008

April arrived in Sri Lanka a little over two weeks ago, and I can't begin to describe how much I've appreciated, enjoyed, and valued her input thus far.


Together, we've been able to run ideas by one another and make decisions about the way that Emerge should operate in the homes we serve. One of the things that was difficult for me to acclimate to was working in Sri Lanka alone. Trying to decide what's best for Emerge and then implement can be overwhelming when you don't have someone working right next to you to bounce ideas off of. In the past three weeks, April and I have together worked to improve our inventory system, brainstorm our next steps for the Bead Program curriculum, and meet with potential partners and resources in Sri Lanka.

I'll let her fill you in on more of the specifics, but I just wanted to post a shout out, and let everyone who is following Emerge know how incredibly excited I am to spend the next year working together with April.


Best,
Ellen Read more »

What a month!

Posted by Sheena on Friday, November 14, 2008

Like Ellen said, this month has been a whirlwind of activity. I'm so sad that it all has to end and we have to leave Sri Lanka, but I'm thankful for the brief time that we had. It's been so great working closely with Ellen and Nirukshi forging the future path for Emerge. Likewise, it's been an incredible experience getting to know the artists of Emerge. No one would be able to discern how much they have endured through day to day interaction with them - they smile just like any other girl would. I truly admire their strength and grace.

I was also impressed by how quickly they picked up on the idea of managing money, and how willing they were to help each other out. Some girls picked up on what we were trying to do right away. They could do arithmetic in their head with ease, and they studied the price sheets to calculate roughly how much it would cost them to make each type of jewelry and thus how much they would profit. A couple of the girls pointed out to me that it costs them much more to make earrings than other kinds of jewelry because earring hoops and clasps were almost twice as expensive as the bindings for other items. They felt better after I reassured them that we scaled what we paid them for earrings accordingly. It was really exciting to see them think about these concepts right from the get go! Most girls had no problem with the exercise, but a few girls did have trouble doing things like adding up their order sheets, or understanding how credits and debits worked in their bank accounts. For example, Bishakha (all names have been changed for anonymity) had trouble doing basic addition and subtraction. Thankfully though, the girls were very sensitive to each other's needs. One older girl, Daksha, who had had more education, took it upon herself to take Bishakha under her wing and walk her through the entire process. The girls were so willing to help each other that they made our job easy. After we explained how everything worked, we were able to take a step back, and let them take care of everything!

In our time working with the girls, they showed us a thing or two as well. They taught us some Sinhala while we helped out at the store and the bank. We got some of the basics down, like ayubowan (basic greeting), owu (yes), nae hae (no), and lassanna (it's beautiful), and we also learned how to count. Here's a picture of Aaron manning the store. It looks like he's counting "eka, deka, tuna..." with the other storekeeper. Also, on one of the last days, they turned on some music and taught us how to dance to popular Sinhala songs. We gave it a shot and tried to shake it like they did, but personally I doubt we'll ever match their skills. Ahh, the memories... I'm going to miss them all so much! I hope someday we'll make it out to Sri Lanka again.Ellen, April, and Nirukshi - I wish you all the best, it's been a pleasure working with you. I have total confidence that you gals will be an unstoppable team, and I look forward to hearing about all of the wonderful things you will do to help Emerge grow!

Cheers!
Sheena & Aaron Read more »

April Wachtel Heads to Sri Lanka

Posted by Alia on Tuesday, November 11, 2008

After nearly missing her flight while lugging 20 pounds of pliers for Emerge program participants, April Wachtel, our new full-time volunteer, has safely arrived in Sri Lanka!

April is one of the most creative, articulate, and well-spoken people I have met. She has a BA in Psychology from Boston University, where she also focused on communications, writing, languages, and logic. In 2006, she discovered the Hundred Dollar Laptop project at MIT, and became enamored by the thought that simple design+ strategy+ amazing people could solve world problems. Inspired by the project, she entered the Massachusetts College of Art’s (MassArt) Industrial Design Certificate program. While studing at MassArt, she cross-registered at MIT for a wheelchair design class, where she met me and learned about Emerge Global.

I remember the sunny day when we sat on Killian court, sunglasses shielding our eyes, and I told her about Sri Lanka, the girls I had met, and my aspirations for our programs. The next thing I knew, April signed on to become a long-term volunteer for Emerge, hoping to combine her creative and business interests for a year in Sri Lanka.

As our Sri Lanka Program Development Officer, April will supervise Emerge Global’s program design, execution, and growth in Sri Lanka. She will work to monitor, evaluate, and develop existing programs, organize logistics of program expansion, and engage affected communities in project planning. As part of our program design, we hope to build the local capacity to implement, manage, and assess all current and future Emerge Global programs in Sri Lanka. Having just returned from a trip to South Africa to design a educational attachment for wheelchairs where her work continues to be developed, I know April will be an asset to Emerge in reaching this goal.

I'm thrilled to have April as part of the team, not only for her competence, but for her enthusiasm and creativity which is absolutely contagious!

Welcome to Sri Lanka, April!
EmergeLove,

Alia Read more »

The Month in Review

Posted by Ellen on Saturday, November 08, 2008

The past month has been a whirlwind of activity! Aaron and Sheena, two short-term volunteers who worked with Emerge back in the United States, spent October providing valuable insights and improvements to the Emerge's programs inside Sri Lanka. And April, a new volunteer who arrived last Friday, has already visited Ma-Sevana and is in the process of working on the best way to keep track of our inventory.


Aaron spent much of his time researching ways to source beads from China instead of purchasing them from Fire Mountain Gems, a wholesaler in the United States. Ideally the best way for us to obtain beads would be to purchase them from a local Sri Lankan distributor. This way, we don't have to concern ourselves with import restrictions and taxes. However, the problem has been, and I believe will continue to be, the lack of a consistent supply and of high quality raw materials. None of the stores that we've found have any sort of catalog to order from, so designing jewelry pieces around an inconsistent supply source will cause us problems in the future. In addition, many of the beads I've seen at stores here in Sri Lanka are spray-painted, meaning that the color chips off after very little wear. One of my priorities when purchasing beads is chosing high-quality materials that will last for a long time. I don't feel comfortable buying beads that aren't as good as the current ones we're using, even if they are much less expensive. Because of this, the next step is to continue to develop relationships with potential suppliers in China, and ultimately test out their bead supplies through a small order in the near future!

Sheena spent a majority of her time this past month refining the curriculum that I had laid out for the Bead Workshops. I believe that it is important for the girls not only to experience the art-therapy aspect of jewelry making, but also to learn valuable skills for themselves and their futures with regards to the money they're earning. I want them to know how a bank account works, what it means to manage money, and how to budget their savings. From this, in the month of October Sheena came up with the idea and implemented a Bank and Store into each jewelry workshop. Essentially, the girls receive a check from Nirukshi, our Bead Program Coordinator, every time they turn in a product, which they deposit into their own bank accounts at the "Emerge Bank." When they want to purchase supplies, such as beads, wire, or tools, they fill out an order form and then go to the Bank to make sure they have enough money in their account to cover the cost of the supplies. Then, they head to the "Emerge Store" where storekeepers hand out the supplies they ordered. Both the Store and the Bank are run by girls participating in the program, empowering the girls even more.

A lot of the work I've been doing the past month has been in expanding Emerge as a global organization. From working on the best method of internal and external communication to developing a organization-wide base of collective knowledge, it has been an incredibly fascinating process. With the month of November in front of me, I am looking forward to continuing to improve the current Bead Program, and exploring future partnerships with other organizations here in Sri Lanka.



Until then,
Ellen Read more »