SCWEC donates sanitary napkins machine to Welikada Female Prison

The SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneur Council (SCWEC) comprises a membership of key women entrepreneur organizations from the SAARC countries, under the guidance of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) and SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI). The objective of the Council is developing and promoting women entrepreneurs in the South Asian Region.

Under their project for production and marketing of eco-friendly sanitary napkins, members of the SCWEC headed by Rifa Mustapha, Chairperson, along with Jani Perera, Jezaayar Hassendeen and other members donated the first sewing machine for the project to the women’s prison in Welikada.

The main purpose of the project when it started was to Ensure social inclusion strengthening of a group of people who can easily be marginalized by developing knowledge, skills and attitudes, promote self confidence in the identified women, promote healthy lifestyles by women for women, promote small and medium scale entrepreneurship ability of motivated rural women, promote the marketing of ecofriendly products.

The vision of SCWEC to empower women of all walks of life to use their skills and knowledge to start making an income from it to sustain their families are not limited to women in a free society.

Those who are behind a prison cell also can still make a contribution to sustain themselves and their children, families outside the prison walls and this project is just the start of a massive project to empower all women who need a helping hand to start something.

Initially, the inmates of the women’s section will manufacture and utilise the bio-degradable and eco friendly sanitary napkins for their personal use and they will be trained to sew these napkins to make a sustainable living and strengthen the financial stability of their families.

Chandana Ekanayake, Commissioner of Prisons (Rehabilitation) at Department of Prisons, and an officer who has helped thousands of prisoners and their families with numerous programs for their benefit, extended his fullest support for this project and also allocated a hall inside the prison territory for setting up the machinery to train the female inmates and get the project under way.

Rifa Mustapha said that this project will need the help of philanthropic donors to import the material from India as the material is not available locally.