Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
That is empowerment… To reinforce someone with the skill set to earn their own means.
The MJF Charitable Foundation (MJFCF) partakes in many initiatives to empower various branches of society including differently abled children, underprivileged youth and marginalised women. The beautiful hand-woven items that you see throughout this article are the result of such an initiative carried out by the MJFCF’s East Centre Women’s Development Programme in Kalkudah.
Fifteen keen female residents in the area were trained and equipped with the new skill of palmyrah leaf weaving. Since the main resource for this practice is the palmyrah tree, which is widely available in the Kalkudah region, it is a skill that is convenient and practical for them to put into use. They could focus on tapping into their inherent creativity and intelligence to learn the craft of neatly weaving the leaf into whatever item they intended to make, without having to worry about sourcing raw materials.
On the 29th of January (2025), the entrepreneurs-in-the-making were given the opportunity to showcase their newly-acquired skills to a visiting team from Dilmah’s Head Office. In fact, it was more than just an exhibition – the ladies made a total sale of LKR 23,350 on the day, with the Head Office crew being highly impressed by the variety and quality of items that these women had created in such a short time. It was truly awe-inspiring. There were baskets, market bags, trays, place mats, tissue box holders, storage boxes, food utensils, other homeware items, and even garlands! The MJF West Centre in Moratuwa has already placed orders for several items made by these incredible women, and they have also been allocated stalls at the next People’s Market in the East.
The icing on the cake is that all of these palmyrah leaf items are environment-friendly, hence inadvertently enabling these women to educate, promote and contribute towards sustainability among their communities as well – an aspect that Dilmah Conservation and the MJF Group strongly advocates.
If these images are anything to go by, the trainees are certainly well on their way to becoming fully-skilled entrepreneurs!
Stunning, isn’t it, what empowerment can do?
