New Shoots Project

Equality-based community support and training works to provide holistic support and capacity building services to marginalised people and their families, enabling them to access their rights alongside their peers.

In Sri Lanka, climate change is impacting the agriculture sector and the families who rely on it for food and income. An unstable political situation with high inflation has made life very difficult, particularly for lower socio-economic, marginalised people living with disability, who are often provided with little knowledge and support to cope with the impacts of climate change.

This project will run a training program in organic gardening and provide advice and seeds to enable people to grow crops and feed themselves.

With the support of the Australian Volunteers Program Impact Fund, this project will:

• educate 250 people living with disability and at least 250 family members about climate change and actions they can take through a series of workshops;
• recruit 80 community volunteers to assist in a plant nursery and help people living with disability and their families to gain confidence in planting; and
• provide 250 people living with disability with gardening tools and fruit and vegetable plants.

Home-Street-School

Bridging Lanka (Guarantee) Limited is supporting primary school children to stay in school.  

Impoverished parts of Mannar, northern Sri Lanka, have experienced a steep decline in primary school attendance due to poverty, domestic violence, and high rates of substance abuse. 

This trial project will work with one grade-three class and their families to understand the pressure points of each household, the harmful impacts of the neighbourhood and how these influences impact on school attendance and learning. 

 With the support of the Australian Volunteers Program Impact Fund, this project will: 

• form a weekly mothers’ support group and conduct a Better Parenting workshop program
• explore how men can reduce substance misuse and violence against women, and play a more active part in raising their children
• conduct a weekly program of school-based creative and interactive activities for children
• conduct trial responses to common priority issues that emerge from in-depth interviews with families.

The ambition is to lift overall primary school attendance through these activities.  

Expand Online Psychosocial Support to Reach and Empower Disadvantaged Social Groups Including Women, People Living with Disabilities and Marginalised Communities. 

Shanthiham's mission is to improve mental health and psychosocial wellbeing at the individual, family and community level in Sri Lanka.  

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Shanthiham established a tele-counselling system to provide online counselling and support across the northern region. This project will enable the expansion of the online services to reach more people from disadvantaged groups including women, people living with disability, LGBTIQ+ and marginalised communities. The project will help to address gender-based violence and alcoholism, which have worsened due to COVID-19 and the current economic crisis.  

With the support of the Australian Volunteers Program Impact Fund, this project will: 

• purchase a new laptop and headphones
• set up and equip a new counselling room
• provide improved online psychosocial support to an additional 30 people per month through the upgraded equipment and counselling room 
• set up two pilot talking booths in remote parts of the Jaffna district, to allow people from remote and marginalised groups who are fearful or unable to come to the centre to access psychosocial support. 

Enhancing employment prospects for disadvantaged children through innovative digital education.

The Organisation of People for Engagement and Enterprise (OPEnE) will deliver high quality digital lessons to school students across Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka has a lack of qualified teachers and an under-resourced education system. To help deliver high quality education to all Sri Lankan schools, OPEnE has developed digital lessons in English and Information and Communication Technology, which have been recognised as valuable resources by the government. However, many schools do not have the resources and training required to teach these lessons.

With the support of the Australian Volunteers Program Impact Fund, this project will: 

• deliver a smartboard and laptop to three schools which are particularly disadvantaged in Mannar district
• deliver a laptop for use by OPEnE staff for training teachers and working with community groups
• deliver training to all grade one-to-five teachers to demonstrate the use of the equipment and digital lessons
• plant trees to improve the learning environment
• establish edible gardens to teach about healthy eating and provide fresh produce to students.

OPEnE has a long-term commitment to these schools. The outcomes will benefit current and future students and can be scaled up to other schools. These schools will become models for digital education and greening of schools with the active participation of communities and parents in the region.

Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce 

The Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce project will focus on addressing the technological challenges facing women entrepreneurs as they seek to grow their businesses. The project will select 100 women entrepreneurs primarily from the Hambantota District women’s entrepreneur forum, which provides support, education and networks to help local women grow their businesses. Participants will include local ethnic groups (Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim) as well as women living with a disability. 

With support from the Australian Volunteers Program Impact Fund, the project will include:  

• training and awareness sessions to establish online and social media goals for participants’ businesses 
• developing and implementing social media and online marketing strategies 
• designing Facebook pages and websites, including establishing links with the Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce 
• hosting events to build participants’ network connections and learn from other businesses 
• workshops on cultural barriers, workplace harassment and domestic violence as well as LGBTQI+ and disability inclusion. 

Male entrepreneurs will also participate in workshops to understand the importance of women in the workplace and the benefits of inclusion. 

The project will improve participants’ ability to use social media to improve their business’ performance, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants will feel more confident in their ability to compete in a predominately male environment and understand the benefits of social inclusion. 

Building COVID-19 resilience in vulnerable communities in northern Sri Lanka

Bridging Lanka will work to understand the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable families in the Mannar District of Northern Sri Lanka, trial responses to help build community resilience, and explore ways to recruit and work with volunteers remotely.

ECSAT back to business

Equality-based Community Support And Training (ECSAT) will run training to support their beneficiaries to protect themselves and their communities from COVID-19, as well as resume their education, vocational training and therapeutic support services for people with disabilities.