Sidi visits the girls at Panadura

Posted by Nirukshi de Lanerolle on Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Sidi, my nephew from the US, is one of the main donors who supported Chari, his brother in raising funds for the 2008 and 2009 Emerge holiday parities.

On his recent visit to Sri Lanka Sidi visited the shelters Emerge is working with. I was glad he was visiting so that he would understand the work we do.

First, he visited the girls in Moratuwa very briefly and later in the day the Panadura girls. The girls were so excited about his visit. They had a lot of fun playing musical chairs the “American way” (as Jennifer would describe it). After that, many photos were taken of the girls while they posed in different ways. Sidi’s sunglasses were a hit among the girls. Each one would wear it and pose away for their photo to be taken. It gave them great joy that someone took so much of trouble taking photos of each one of them.

After spending quality time with the girls, he promised them he would come back and send them each a photo of themselves.

This made the girls very happy as they love company and having their photos taken, especially when they get to keep a copy as well.

Read more »

Smooth Sailing

Posted by jennifer on Monday, February 08, 2010

I was so proud of our girls this week.

We started work at Panadura in mid-November, introducing girls bit by bit to the program, starting with jewelry techniques, bringing in goals and planning, and finally setting up the full workshop structure for the girls to run.

This was the first week when we had the girls run the shop independently and the bank and it was amazing to see how smoothly things ran. ALNM, a girl who's often a little whirlwind during the workshops, ran the shop with the help of two other girls. She carefully stacked the beads by size, lined up all of her supplies, and kept all her customers in line.

Having the girls run things (as they do at MaSevana) has been our goal for the past month, so it's a relief to see it going so well. I even had a moment to stop and catch my breath! And when I did, I looked around; in one corner Nirukshi was orienting two new girls to the program, in another SR was supervising the bankers, in a third the shop was running (a little chaotically, but that's the Sri Lankan style), and in the forth corner our volunteer Jenny was quietly teaching girls the names of the months in English. The rest of the girls sat working on their current pieces.

:-) Read more »

Volunteer this Summer in Sri Lanka

Posted by Alia on Monday, February 01, 2010

Emerge Global is currently recruiting highly motivated, creative, and passionate individuals to volunteer in Sri Lanka this summer! As a young organization, this is a great opportunity to shape our evolving work.

If interested in a position described below, please send a cover letter, resume, and volunteer application form to: opportunities@emergeglobal.org by Friday, March 12th at 9pm EST.

You can download a copy of our volunteer application form here:
Emerge%20Volunteer%20Application%20Form.doc

Summer volunteer opportunities:
Program Reintegration Volunteer
Fundraising Volunteer
Design and Sales Volunteer Read more »

Building Life Skills: Red Cross Joins Emerge Global to Teach Infant and Child CPR and First Aid

Posted by Alia on Monday, February 01, 2010

Three years ago, we witnessed a tragedy that could have, and should have been avoided. One of our program participant’s five-month-old baby passed away after choking in his sleep. Through the Emerge Bead Program, we want to make sure this never happens again.

This December, as a result of the initiative of our wonderful Programs Director, Jennifer, we collaborated with the Red Cross to host a workshop on infant and child First Aid and CPR for the Ma-Sevana girls and their matrons. We wish it had happened sooner but are excited to say it was quite the success. We plan to do similar workshops for future program participants.

One of our priorities for 2010 is to develop a consistent life skills curriculum to be interwoven into the Bead Program. Right now, we hope to divide our life skills curriculum into five monthly themes:

(1) Goals and Planning for Your Future

(2) Your Body, Your Life, and Your Health

(3) Managing Your Money

(4) Job Opportunities, Coaching, and Planning

(5) Community Development

The life skills units will each consist of at least one event with an outside speaker, workshops and trainings hosted by our dedicated Bead Program Coordinator, Nirukshi, and activities that the girls will engage in with their mentors once our Mentorship Program is launched. If you have experience in any of these areas or would like to help contribute curriculum, we’d love to hear from you! Please email Jennifer, our Programs Director, at Jennifer@emergeglobal.org

Read more »