Happy Burpday Jen Jen

Posted by Nirukshi de Lanerolle on Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Jennifer Van Winkle is our new Programme Development Director for Emerge Lanka, it was her birthday last week and along with the usual cake Jen had a better plan, she wanted to teach the girls how to make Macaroni and Cheese American style.

We had also planned a fun day for the girls and they showcased their talents with drawings and painting, some of them drew new patterns for our future jewelry designs and others landscapes and flowers.

We were surprised how innovative these patterns were and we hope to incorporate them into our next collection.

During their tea brake Jen and Rachael taught the girls how to make Macaroni and cheese and they were excited to watch. At lunchtime we shared it among everyone and the toddlers enjoyed their first Mac and Cheese.

After lunch the happy birthday song was sung and the girls presented Jen with a beautiful card which they created themselves. Jen and Prabhani love to spend time with the pre-school kids next door and invited two of them to join celebrations.

We found out that one of the girls was unwell, and as she was confined to her room, our words of encouragement made her day and she promised to get well soon.

For a caring person like Jen, being around the girls and their kids was the greatest gift of all

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Who wants to work in a garment factory when they grow up?

Posted by jennifer on Friday, September 25, 2009

...apparently our girls do! While surveying a group of potential participants we found that almost all of the girls were interested in obtaining work in a garment factory. In fact, for many of them it was their number one career choice. This came as a real shock to me. In the states, factory work is typically viewed as a form of oppression and exploitation, but after talking with the girls I started to see the industry from their perspective.

First off, let me clarify that factory work can be very exploitative. Workers earn between $25 and $45 per month (depending on the source)and as much as $56/month with overtime, and work very long hours. The 1942 Factory Ordinance permits 100 hours of compulsory overtime a year, with plans to change this limit to a maximum of 80 hours per month (on top of a typical Sri Lankan work week of 45 hours, averaging out to a potential 63 hour workweek).

In addition to low pay and long hours, safety concerns and child labor violations can be an issue at garment factories. Other issues that are often cited include poor living conditions, sexual harassment, and stigma (as unaccompanied young women in a very conservative society).

So what could attract young women to this kind of work?
1) Despite the drawbacks, factory work may still be better than the alternatives available to girls.
2) Working outside the home and earning money to support her family may help a young woman raise her status in the community. A study by Sajeda Amin et al, also cites delayed marriages, increased self-confidence, higher value placed on education, and more confidence in dealing with men as results of exposure to factory work.
3) Finally, training on the Juki machine the machine used in garment factories, is relatively easy to obtain through community service organizations and NGOs.


Regardless of our own feelings about the types of work available to the girls, the Emerge Bead Program can provide them with the skills and knowledge to make better, more informed decisions and pursue the future that they believe is in their own best interest, whether that be working in a factory, a hospital, a school, or their own home. Our skills training provides them with a potential source of future income, and the business skills taught in our curriculum provide them with the foundational knowledge to pursue their own interests. Through mentoring and life-skills workshops the girls are exposed to the options available to them, their rights in the home and workplace, and skills they will need to succeed wherever they go.

Check out my sources and find out more:
Overtime Law Hurts Sweatshop Workers and Transition to Adulthood for Female Garment Factory Workers and Garments Without Guilt Read more »

Of painting pictures and possibility

Posted by Prabhani Atukorale on Tuesday, September 22, 2009

This is my first official blog entry as an Emerge programs volunteer and I’d like to introduce myself. I am a Sri Lankan who grew up in Nigeria and currently a doctoral student at MIT, taking a semester off from school this fall and spending it in my beautiful island home. I am a biological engineer interested in vaccines, public health, public policy, and probably just about everything else under the sun (albeit to different degrees). But most of all, I am very very human.

Over the past four weeks, I have visited our girls four times. As I learn about my work with Emerge this fall and how I can help, I feel as if I haven’t been able to catch my breath after hitting the ground running (the way you feel right after scrambling off a Colombo bus that is bursting at its seams during rush hour, riding with one arm holding tight onto the railing just inside and the other arm hanging just outside the open door). Analogy aside, there is a tremendous amount we can do – which is also the beauty of this project.

During our last visit, I sat at the big red table observing the girls as they moved so expertly around the bead workshop. Some were at the front of the room, as Nirukshi quality-checked and logged their newest jewelry and gave them ‘bank’ vouchers for their next pieces. Some were at the ‘bank’, steps away within our work room, checking their available balances as to how many new beads they could purchase. And some were at the ‘shop’, choosing their new sets of beads, the small red ones, the cloudy square ones, the oblong pearls, among the many jars laid out.

If you peek into our work space around mid-day, it will likely take you a minute or two to take in everything happening at once. Perhaps this first glance will allow you to paint one type of picture. Furrowed brows and clever fingers, bright smiles and creative designs, long black hair and printed dresses. It speaks of eagerness, youth, beauty, possibility. Now, especially after noon or so, please come by and look again. This time, you’ll have to add a few things to your picture – the wide-eyed babies on the hips of some mothers after the daycare hours close for the morning, the tummy bumps under the dresses of other mothers-to-be, the one toddler who always runs out of kindergarten and crawls along the table, adding his constant garbled commentary to every conversation. If you retrace his steps, you can find me in one of my favorite places of the home, the kindergarten full of some of the friendliest toddlers I have ever met in my life. You will find every limb occupied as you do your best to hold every wriggling little person close, simultaneously admiring wooden blocks and freshly written letter b’s as you are serenaded by every nursery rhyme in the book. Now what does your picture look like? Does it still speak of eagerness, youth, beauty, and possibility? Of course it does. That last word is particularly special: possibility.

I am in the process of mapping out the details of my project, which will focus on developing a life skills curriculum working closely with Jennifer Van Winkle and also understanding how our girls can integrate Sri Lanka’s free public education into their lives – a few for the very first time. Our goal is that the life skills allow them to work towards their personal and financial independence and that education allows them to develop vocations that are strong and sustainable. Is this possible? Of course it is. Emerge is about possibility – and for me, this is personal, inspirational, and I hope I can be useful.

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Looking Forward

Posted by Rachael Pool on Sunday, September 13, 2009

As of this May, I was only just beginning to learn about Emerge. Now, it’s September and I’m completely immersed in all things Emerge related.

The last two months have been absolutely frenetic. Emerge Lanka has become an official entity. We’ve identified and started to narrow down a list of potential expansion sites. One fantastic short term volunteer has come and gone while Jennifer, Prabhani, and I have arrived and taken over.

Meanwhile, I’ve begun to get to know and love the girls at the home. I’ve held babies, been teased about my terrible Tamil, and learned how to make a long necklace. My time in the home has been filled with dancing, laughter, practical jokes, lessons in Tamil/English/Sinhala, the occasional tears, and (more than anything else) a sense of pride in all that the girls have accomplished.

Each day is filled with new adventures and challenges. I’m so delighted to be here, in Colombo, working with all of our Emergenistas. I can’t wait to find out what the year holds in store for Emerge Lanka. I look forward to sharing my experiences here with you.

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