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Helping more micro-entrepreneurs

Aid Sri Lanka have signed a new agreement with the Matara District Women’s Chamber of Commerce to provide further assistance to micro-business women affected by the tsunami.

One of the key cottage industries in Sir Lanka is the coir industry. Fibre from coconut husks are transformed into items found in virtually every home including rope, mats and mattresses. There are many coir yarners in the South who convert the coconut fibres in to twine using simple spinning wheels. A typically female trade, yarning is widespread and low-paid. With this project we will provide 10 tea gunnie (sack) machines which will allow coir workers to produce a value added good for which there is currently demand but no supply in the district. In this way these ladies will be able to increase their incomes, remove some of the competition for the coir yarn market in Matara and develop a new trade in the area.

Five women will work on each machine, totaling 50 beneficiaries. The women have been consulted and have formed small groups in which they wish to work. The MWCC will provide training in machine use, accountancy and product development to assist these ladies to grow their business.

The Matara district has 80 tea estates, many of which have expressed an interest in using coir sacks to transport their tea. The MDWCC have collected the requests from the estates and will assist the beneficiaries with developing these new markets.

Coir is a significant industry in Sri Lanka and has received a lot of attention recently, including from the large INGOs post-tsunami. Oxfam has announced a large scale programme of assistance to the industry on a 3-5 year basis. Our project compliments the Oxfam programme, increasing the workers capacity to feed in to the programme.

As the project progresses updates will be featured on the website.

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