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Independence through self-employment is what the pioneer Association of Women with Disabilities offers, reports Feizal Samath Beyond obstacles
But lines of sorrow and pain are etched on her face the moment she looks at her son and reflects on the fate of Kamal Eranda,15, who groans as he breathes. Eranda who lies on a mat on a wooden bed in a small hut has the face of a 10-year-old and his small, emaciated body is curled up. He has been fed only milk and a little water through a feeding bottle, ever since he was born. He cannot talk or walk and has little or no understanding of anything. "He has been like this since birth. We took him to all the doctors here and in Colombo but no one could tell us what is wrong with him. Doctors say, 'Bring him to Colombo', but we are poor and have other children to look after," said Chandrawathie, wiping a tear, while she gently rubs Eranda's brow. The single-room house is bare except for a few chairs and some pictures but the sitting room is neat and tidy. Eranda suffers from a mystery illness that stunts growth. He needs a packet of milk every three days, which is beyond the means of this family with an income of Rs. 2,000 to 3,000 per month. But they cope, with Chandrawa-thie putting heart and soul into growing vegetables. If not for the Anuradha-pura-based Association of Women with Disabilities (AWD), the family would have been in dire straits. The AWD has not been able to cure Eranda but has given a helping hand to Chandrawa-thie to be self-employed while caring for her child. "When we first came here, Chandrawathie asked for financial help so that she could stay at home and look after Eranda. She suggested growing vegetables," said Naraya-nagedera Kamalawathi, AWD President. Padaviya, about 260 km from Colombo, is a rice-growing but very impoverished area. It lies near Pulmoddai and Kokkilai in the east and when the conflict was raging, villagers woke up every morning to the sound of artillery fire. Scores have left their homes to live in refugee camps but come back when the fighting dies down. "We want peace. And I think it would last," says disabled Thimbiripolarachchige Senadheera (23) who has a small carpentry unit outside his wattle-and-daub hut. Born with deformed feet, he used a hand-driven tricycle while schooling. The youth ran out of options to take care of his mother and younger sister after his father died when he was 20. The association then stepped in and provided a loan of Rs. 5,000 for him to buy tools, as he had received training in carpentry from a National Youth Service Council course. "In addition to helping disabled women, we also help women whose children are disabled," noted Palagasinghe Nirosha, an amiable AWD project officer, who was accompanied by Dissanayake Gunawardene, a project officer at CARE, on a motorcycle. Nirosha visits 77 recipients of AWD assistance every week in Padaviya, making sure the self-employment projects work and also looking into other needs. Nirosha said a survey done with the help of Divisional Secretary revealed the extent of disability in the area. There are people who are deaf, dumb, blind, crippled or have other physical disabilities. The AWD has provided loans or seed capital of Rs. 5,000 each to 77 women in the village of a total of 250 women who are disabled or who have children with disabilities. She said the loans are not repaid to the AWD but to small village committees who in turn dole out loans to the rest of the 250 women for more self-employment. "Since women can't go out to work as they have to care for a child with disabilities, we help them to earn some money at home," Nirosha said. Senadheera, who can now ride a normal bicycle despite his disability, heads a small village committee which acts as a bank. "All the loans we have taken from the AWD are paid back to this committee which in turn gives loans to others at one percent interest," he added. The small-time carpenter makes two beds a month and sells it to villagers, to sustain his family. The timber is supplied by the client but forest officers once confiscated his tools, accusing him of cutting timber without a permit. Then the AWD with the help of local officials came to his rescue and got the tools returned. W.G. Ruwanthika was a quiet child slightly withdrawn but otherwise normal until she reached the age of 13. One morning, she woke up screaming and ranting, which continued for three days with her parents trying out herbal remedies. Nothing worked. "We did not treat her for a mental illness because of the social stigma attached to such illnesses. People in the village said a demon had taken over her body," said her mother, P.G. Chandrawathie, adding that her mentally retarded daughter, now 18, can walk but do nothing else. "I have to feed her, change her clothes and wash her," she said, as Ruwanthika looked on with a blank expression. Chandrawathie took up poultry farming to supplement the family income and sells 20 eggs a day at Rs. 4 per egg. "That's enough to keep the home fires burning," she added. Like most men in the village, Chandrawathi's husband is a farmer who relies on seasonal crops, which are often unproductive. "Some of the irrigable land is in conflict zones so our men are unable to work there," she said. According to national figures, some eight percent of Sri Lanka's population suffers from some form of disability. The percentage of people with disabilities in Padaviya and its 3,000-odd families is higher than the national average with villagers putting it down to living amidst a conflict. "Most people here have some form of disability. People are traumatized by the war. Who knows ... maybe the war may have had some impact on the people," said Nirosha as she got onto the pillion of Gunawardene's motorcycle to visit another family. All-round
champion "The problems of these women suddenly dawned on me. They had no rights or no one to speak or fight for their rights. They had no future," she recalls. Kamalawathie then formed the Association for Women with Disabilities (AWD) aimed at helping disabled women or women with disabled children - the first of its kind in Sri Lanka. It was launched in Colombo in 1995 and when a subsequent research study found there was a serious problem in the Anuradha-pura district due to the conflict, poverty and other related issues it moved there in 1998. It receives funding from the Swedish Handicapped International Aid (SHIA) Foundation, CARE and a Canadian government-assisted fund. Chief Minister Berty Premalal Dissanayake provided five acres at Talawa and with the help of funding agencies, the group set up a training cum vocational centre and a three-acre herbal garden and cattle farm. Kamalawathie said disabled women and women with disabled children get trained at this centre in various forms of self-employment and start projects at home. The centre has a staff of 33, some of who are disabled. "We wanted to show the world that disabled women have rights and could face the world independently - given the chance," said Kamalwathie who struggled as a disabled athlete to reach the top. Born with polio, the plucky young woman took to wheelchair racing and soon became a champion, winning all her events in Colombo. Overseas she won gold at Japanese and Hong Kong events and a gold and silver in Indonesia for the 1,500 metres and 5,000 metres. She then got a job at the State Gem Corporation but climbing up the stairs was a painful exercise every day. Yet it gave her the vision to help the disabled. "While there are several organisations helping women, there was no leadership given to disabled women and their families until we came along." Kamalawathie says disabled women find it difficult to get married and in the case of the mentally retarded, rape is a serious problem. The association is now planning to work in Vavuniya with a self-employment project starting off next January. "Like many of the villages in Anuradhapura or Padiviya, I have visited many disabled women in Vavuniya. The situation there is pretty bad and needs our help," she added. |
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