20 persons with disabilities supported by EFC to expand their businesses
The Employers’ Federation of Ceylon Network on Disability took another initiative in the disability field. Under the LEED (Local Empowerment through Economic Development) Project sponsored by the ILO, EFC is supporting 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. Therefore, the LEED project grants interest free loans for persons with disabilities to expand their businesses. It is very important to have entrepreneurs with disabilities.
The interest free loans are granted after proper analysis by the EFc team. In September 2015 EFC granted loans for 20 persons with disabilities to expand their businesses. The handing over of cheques was held at a small function organized by EFC at Nellystar Hotel in Vavuniya district. Statistics show that in the North, 80% of the families are woman headed families. To address this issue the EFC team selected 9 males and 11 female business holders. The loans were granted to 7 persons with physical disabilities, 7 wheel chair users, 3 persons with hearing impairment and 3 vision impaired persons. These candidates have different types of businesses. It was very encouraging to see them involved in different businesses. The types of businesses they were doing were two candidates for fishing nets, phone repairing shop, curd business, CD shop, 3 for milking cows, manufacture of leather hand bags, 2 for poultry farming, agro industry, onion cultivation, sewing and beauty culture, baby shop, cycle parts and repair shop, 2 for vegetable and banana cultivation, and 2 for grocery shops. The project allocated loan facilities for a total of Rs. 1,600,000. All small business holders who benefited from the project were invited for the function organized by the EFC. At Nellystar Hotel, the welcome note was delivered by Ms. ManiqueGunaratne. Ms. Sonali De Silva explained about the activity on small business development. Ms. Sonali De Silva, Ms. ManiqueGunaratne and Mr. A. Kirushanthan handed over the cheques to the beneficiaries. One beneficiary spoke on her success story. The EFC team wishes them all the success to develop their businesses.
Picture descriptions:
1 ManiqueGunaratne handing over the cheque to a small business holder.
2 Group photograph of the small business holders.
3 Sonali De Silva making a presentation.
4 Welcome note by ManiqueGunaratne
ManiqueGunaratne
Executive Committee Member – Disability Organisations’ Joint Front
