PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES GET THE OPPORTUNITY TO BECOME ENTREPRENEURS

The Employers’ Federation of Ceylon Network on Disability took another initiative in the disability field. EFC is planning to support persons with disabilities to expand their businesses. The common trend in the society is to grant self-employment aid which has a charity based approach. When self-employment aid is granted there is no proper mechanism to monitor the growth of the business. Also persons with disabilities have a mindset of a charity approach. But it is very important to have a right based approach.  A group of 11 persons with diverse disabilities (vision impaired, partially sighted, hearing impaired, speech difficulty, physical disabilities and multiple disabilities) successfully completed a course of study in Small Business Development in June 2019. The trainees were trained on how to prepare a proper business plan and they will be granted low interest loans to expand their businesses. It is very important to have entrepreneurs with disabilities. In 2015 under the ILO (International Labour Organisation) LEED (Local Empowerment through Economic Development) project EFC granted interest free loans for 30 persons with diverse disabilities from the North of Sri Lanka.

 

Picture descriptions for vision impaired persons:

1 Manique Gunaratne conducting the session.

2 Group photograph.

3 Sign language support for hearing impaired persons.

 

Manique Gunaratne

Mobile – 0094779571918

Author: Manique