WDC Takes Pride in Welcoming Leymah Gbowee to World Heritage City-Kandy

Women’s Development Centre (WDC) arranged a welcoming ceremony for Nobel Peace prizewinner (2011) Leymah Gbowee on her visit to the World Heritage city – Kandy. Leymah Gbowee  visited Kandy city on the 16^th of August, 2012 with other delegates including Abigail Disney, Nighat Khan, Elaine Martyn and Danielle Goldberg.

Leymah Gbowee is a peace activist and is responsible for the liberation of Liberia from its second civil war through women’s peace movement also known as ‘Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace’. She has received around 14 international awards for her work in peace building in Liberia. Her work in building peace in Liberia was turned into a documentary movie by Abigail Disney, which in a way contributed to the recognition of Leymah Gbowee worldwide.

It was indeed a great pleasure for all the staff members at WDC to welcome such a inspirational lady to Kandy city, Sri Lanka. Members of Women’s Development Centre going by both Sinhala and Hindu traditions warmly welcomed Leymah Gbowee and other delegates along with a small event organized within WDC premises itself.  

Leymah Gbowee also delivered a very meaningful and an inspirational speech during the function and she also mentioned that even though your work is recognized by a nobel prize or not, the most important thing is to contribute to the betterment of the society even if it is a really simple thing that you do.

Prevention is better than Cure

The health awareness programs conducted by WDC helps us to reach the community gaining their confidence to access our resources. On these occasions we meet various persons with diverse problems.

A woman (Janaki – pseudonym) was very attentive during the health awareness program and persistently asked questions related to STD. I realized that she had a problem, and my instincts were confirmed when she wanted to speak to me in private at the end of the lecture. 

“I am worried about my husband. He has been acting strange for the past few weeks. He works as an assistant in a witchcraft temple. Since of late, he as started sleeping in a separate room. He gets angry when I ask him why. Our children are big and they sleep in their own rooms. Their father’s behavior is a mystery to them too. But they never inquired anything from me” said Janaki.

“My husband has the light in his room in the night and my curiosity made me tiptoe to the room one night and what I saw through the slightly open door shocked me. A bottle of surgical spirits, cotton wool and a tube of medical cream was laid out on the table while he was dressing a wound in his genitals. He got angry when I burst into the room. He did not respond to my questions at first. I could not hold back my tears and begged him to tell me the problem. He then told me that he had sexual contact with a woman who visited the witchcraft temple and that he might have contracted the skin disease from her. I was very sad. He refused to seek treatment from hospital. What can I do to help him?” Janaki asked in a sad tone.

I advised Janaki to bring her husband to the STD clinic where we attend to such persons; she did not turn up on the given date. I sent her a P.C. with a reminder – not stating anything relevant to the matter. The next week she arrived with her husband but did not come to the clinic.

I discussed the issue with the STD specialist physician. We pretended that to be unaware of the case and called them in; he was examined and prescribed with appropriate treatment for gonorrhea and continued to attend the STD clinic daily. He still does not know me, but I gather information from the wife when she comes for treatment.

She said that they have regained their relationship and are happier now. A sense of fulfillment overwhelmed me adding strength to my future commitments.

By Daisy Ruwanpathirana

2009

WDC

The History of the Vocational Training Centre

The activities of Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) of the Women’s Development Centre (WDC) was initially conducted in the Kandy district. CBR services are offered to the children in Kandy as well as from centres in the peripheries.  Children attending the centres are trained in daily living skills, speech, physiotherapy and basic vocational training.

The beginning of the  VTC center was interesting. We commenced the services in a small room at 327, Peradeniya road, Kandy. However, the need for a special location to conduct the activities was the immediate requirement. The CBR approached the Director of the Social Services in Kandy for assistance. The director was very cooperative and allocated the premises at “Sahana” Ampitiya for the purpose. In fact, he took an extra interest to put up two adjacent sections at the premises to maintain a hostel for differently-abled children attending the special education school (Mahinda School) in the vicinity.

This gave birth to the VTC at Ampitiya in 2001. Initially 24 children attended the centre and they were in the age group of 14/15 years. The centre mainly focused on children with hearing and mental impairments. Anyway it is our intention to address these children as with “Special Talents” than disabled.

Picket against Gender Based Violence & Child Abuse in Sri Lanka....

Women’s Development Centre has planned to organize islandwide pickets against Gender Based Violence and Child abuse. The first step towards it was taken in partnership with Matale Women’s forum. WDC with the support of Matale Women’s forum successfully organized a protest against gender based violence and child abuse in Rathtota, Matale. The main aim behind organizing this campaign was to direct the attention of the government on strengthening the laws on gender based violence and child abuse.

Recently, many child abuse cases and GBV cases were reported from all over the island and thus it was evident that there is a sudden increase in such issues. Furthermore, it was also identified that there are many reasons behind these problems such as poor family relationships, negligence of parents, migration of females in search of work, etc.

Therefore, the picket which was organized on the 7^th of August, 2012 aimed to attract the attention of both the responsible officers as well as the public towards these issues and to toughen the laws and other steps that could be taken against the people that engage in child abuses and violence against women.

Some demands of this picket can be mentioned as the following:

• Strengthening the legal system so that the defendants of such cases would be punished
• Requesting the public to not to nominate the politicians who have committed such crimes
• Creating an outcry to show the negative impact of gender based violence and child abuse and thereby to gain the attention of the public and the government towards these issues
• To make the parents aware of the repercussions of neglecting their own children

 

WDC would like to thank all the people who participated for this protest and made it a success.