India's MOU with Sri Lanka: Providing vocational training to women in Ampara

India and Sri Lanka will now be collaborating for women empowerment. As per a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two countries on June 7, a Women's Community Learning Centre in Ampara, Sri Lanka will be set up as collaboration between both the countries. The signing ceremony was held at the High Commission of India, with High Commissioner of India, Y.K. Sinha, and the Sri Lankan Secretary to the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, Chandrani Senaratne. Minister of Women and Child Affairs of Sri Lanka- Chandrani Bandara was also present at the ceremony.

The project is speculated to be setup in two years and initially 20 master trainees and 100 grassroot trainees will be trained under it, according to Bureaucracy Today.

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The aim of this project is to provide vocational training to the war-affected destitute women in the Ampara district. Indian NGO, SEWA has partnered with the government in order to carry out the training programmes and will be working closely with the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs of Sri Lanka.  Garment-making and agro-food processing are the main areas in which the skill training will be imparted along with many livelihood skills. It is also being said that capacity building will be a key skill that will be taught to these women living in target areas to make them economically and socially stronger.

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This is not the first time that India is doing a skill training project for war-torn women in Sri Lanka. A vocational training session called Batticaloa Project in Batticaloa District was started in June 2010 and is still going on. Around 1500 destitute women affected by the war have benefited from the project in rehabilitating themselves by being economically independent.

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Feature Image Credit: News.LK