Posted by jennifer on Wednesday, March 31, 2010

I just wanted to share one of our many, little, victories. It's the curriculum. In Sinhala. Finally! The girls get to see it on Monday.

Thanks to our translator and our wonderful typesetter! Read more »

Chennai two.....

Posted by Nirukshi de Lanerolle on Tuesday, March 30, 2010

When March comes along ever year I get very excited…… this is the time I get to go to Chennai for my annual church retreat. Like last year, this year too, I received a gift of a free airline ticket. Even though I was offered cold hard cash to stay back by my daughter as 9 days without me was too stressful for her, who had to take care of dad, Fudge and Muffin. Of course the girls at the shelters were very worried that I was leaving for so long and not forgetting Rach and Jen.

This year I flew on Sri Lankan and the lady who gifted the ticket accompanied me, as she is 75 yrs old I had to order a wheelchair for her journey. It was stressful for me to look after her right throughout the journey however I managed somehow. This year there were 600 Sri Lankans who attended the retreat and it was quite intense.

Programmes commenced the next day we arrived and it continued for 5 days. The church sisters were awesome taking care of us like royalty bringing us morning tea/coffee to our bedside. Never seen before the dedication and love they had for us.

Once the retreat was over the most interesting part was the shopping sprees, the girls had given me strict instructions to bring them bindis and candy which was on the top of my list, and I managed to buy it for them on the first day of shopping.

Soon the days passed by for me to come home and I was glad I missed my family, my pets and the girls very much.

This year too my bags weighed more than 70 kgs and I was very lucky that I sailed through the Indian and local customs without making any extra payments, I believe that itself was a miracle to end an amazing experience.

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Before and After

Posted by jennifer on Friday, March 12, 2010

We painted the home about a week ago, courtesy of a British donor. For a modest amount of money the staff at Panadura were able to buy a truly amazing amount of paint. The girls all chipped in and even Nirukshi and I got involved and the activity room was finished in only a couple hours. I thought I'd share some pictures with you. Unfortunately I had to crop out all the faces that were recognizable, but hopefully you can still get a feel for how much more homey and kid-friendly the workshop space is now. Read more »

Over $21,000 in Savings Generated in 2009

Posted by Rachael Pool on Monday, March 08, 2010

We’ve finalized jewelry totals for 2009, and begun transferring funds into the girls’ bank accounts. I’ve got some exciting stats that I’d love to share with everyone today. In 2009 the Emerge girls made 2127 pieces of jewelry, generating $21,217.78 in savings for program participants! Our highest earner, RS, made nearly $1,900 USD.

To give you a little context: $120 is the average monthly salary of a Sri Lankan worker (Sri Lanka Department of Census and Statistics, Household Income and Expenditure Survey, 2006/2007). This means that, through her work with Emerge, RS has generated more in savings than the average yearly income of a working Sri Lankan.

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Community Fund at Ma Sevena

Posted by Nirukshi de Lanerolle on Saturday, March 06, 2010

Sometime ago, the girls decided that a certain percentage of their earnings from selling Emerge jewelry would go into a Community Fund that would benefit all the girls. The idea came about when the girls expressed concerned that they didn’t have adequate sanitary pads at the home. If they were making money, why couldn’t they fix this problem?

We recently had our first Community Fund project, which will take place every 6 months as we move forward. We informed the girls that some monies were available. The girls had a meeting appointed RS as their leader, who is the most senior member of the programme at the shelter in Moratuwa. Most of the girls were leaving the home soon, as some of their court cases had been resolved. Others had secured jobs and went on to join a local garment factory through the help of the Probation Department. The girls collectively decided that they wanted clothes and under garments for the future and the same for their babies.

Through the Community Fund we hope to teach the girls how to make decisions as a group and also to learn how to budget and plan a project. They had to decide how much of their money they wanted to spend and what types of clothes they wanted. Since they aren’t allowed to leave the home, I visited the regular stores from which I purchase goods for the girls during Christmas and Sinhala New Year and took at least 03 photos of each product they were considering. There after I showed them a slide show of the products and they made out their shopping lists from the budget that was allocated to each of them.

After the money was given to me I went on a shopping spree on behalf of the girls. This is one of my favorite parts of my job. I love to select the most appropriate item of clothing for each girl and their babies, as it gives me a lot of satisfaction. And, I must say that they in turn truly appreciate my choice of clothing which is given to them.

After the purchases, I put them all in a separate bags with their nametags and these items were distributed to them.

Once the goods were received they were so proud of their achievements! Many of the girls who contributed to the Community Fund had already left the shelter and there were many girls who were new to the Program. As such, we hope to do these projects more frequently in the future.

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Life Skills

Posted by jennifer on Wednesday, March 03, 2010

It's been a big month in the homes.

At Panadura the girls started the Money and Banking theme. They had a lesson on the cost of living the first day. We used a modified version of the price is right to teach them approximate costs of everyday household items. They learned a lot too. By the end of the workshop they managed to cut their 'spending' by 60% to a more realistic monthly budget. This kind of training will especially help girls who need to live on their own after they leave the home. Lack of knowledge would leave them vulnerable to scams (much like Rachael and I fell victim to quite a few scams when we first got to Sri Lanka!) and with so little money to spare, they can't afford to learn that lesson the hard way.

The next few lessons this month will reinforce what they learned about spending. We'll talk about wise and unwise spending, saving, and living within their means. We're also excited to welcome a representative from the bank to come talk to the girls about how to use their bank and how to access their personal savings accounts. ~A bank account was opened for each girl a couple weeks ago. We're really grateful to the probation department and the head of the institution for setting this up.

Meanwhile, at Ma Sevana the girls are learning about small business development. Our curriculum walks them through the stages of establishing a small business first using jewelry as the base, and later with a product or service that the girls design themselves. This week the girls talked about markets and decided who they wanted to sell their jewelry to. Then, with that in mind, the girls set out designing their pieces. In the weeks to come, they'll be receiving feedback about their pieces, redesigning them, and building up their businesses with everything from advertising to pricing plans. Can't wait to see what they'll come up with! It's great to see them absorbing the lessons and teaching each other.

There was also one tiny victory this week at the workshop that I forgot to mention: we introduced our very first all-sinhala document! It doesn't sound like a big deal, but our curriculum and other documents have just started trickling in from the translator and it's great to see the girls working their way through the curriculum without having to turn to us for translation. Every step towards independence is such a rush! :) Read more »