Women participating in the program received training in a range of stitching and embroidery techniques.

Workers on the island’s extensive tea plantations remain among the most impoverished and vulnerable groups in the country. Sewalanka is committed to improving the living conditions of these workers, who make a vital contribution to the local economy.

Young women on plantations face particularly severe difficulties. With little access to education and very limited opportunities for work outside the plantations, they often find early marriage and a life of tea picking are their only options.

To provide these women with skills that will allow them to generate their own income, in 2007 Sewalanka began a sewing training program. Experienced teachers have been training young women on the plantations in a range of sewing, stitching and embroidery techniques.

The women use these skills to make quality clothes, which they sell locally. The training enables them to raise their income while developing a skill that they can continue to refine and improve as they increase the range of textiles they are able to produce.

At present the 16 women in the program are producing clothes for pregnant mothers and infants, for which there is considerable demand on plantations. The project has so far been extremely successful, however as a result of rising costs for raw materials – thread and cloth – plantation worker cooperatives are finding it difficult to finance the activity. While Sewalanka sees considerable potential in the program and would like to expand the scheme to other areas of the hill country, the project is currently in need of a donor who can provide marketing advice and support to help create a successful cottage industry.