Leadership training for Trinco war widows inaugurated

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 August 2002, 18:47 GMT]
The first phase of leadership training for war widows in the Trincomalee district was inaugurated Tuesday in Trincomalee by the District Planning Secretariat and sponsored by the World Food Programme.

8757 war widows headed families are in the Trincomalee district according to a report compiled by the Trincomalee District Planning Secretariat.

In the first phase three hundred war widows, 100 each from three communities, Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim-have been selected to undergo the leadership training.

The Trincomalee District Government Agent Mr.N.H.K.Nelumdeniya inaugurated the two day training programme held at Trincomalee Social Service Centre Tuesday morning.

Mutur DS division tops the list with 2488 war widows, Trincomalee DS division came second with 2057. Kuchchaveli- 873, Thampalakamam- 650, Seruvila- 462 Gomarankadawela- 280, Kinniya- 764, Eachchilampathu- 324, Kantale- 679 and Morawewa- 180.

The immediate objectives of the leadership training programme is to promote self confidence and courage among the war widows to face the immediate situation, assisting women to start income generating activities by ways of training and credit, increasing opportunities for vocational training and to assist in the formation of self interest groups, secretariat sources said.

The long term objectives are (1) Develop an attitude of self reliance among women, (2) Increase levels of functional literacy among women (3) Increasing awareness in the community with regard to issues related to women.

The two-day workshop for the war widows will focus on character building and empowerment through knowledge. Lectures were given by resource personnel on character building stressing five objectives such as empowering women as leaders in conflict resolution, training women to empower themselves without too much deviation from cultural and social norms, informing women of their rights and how to use them and confidence building by giving women a feeling of self worth through various projects, sources added.