New Life for two hundred widowed women in Matara
By Barry McGivern

Scotland's Buddhist Vihara represented by Venerable K Sri Rewatha Thero and two of the Vihara's committee members visited Matara district in order to roll out their project for livelihood assistance to women widowed by the Tsunami. The Vihara is providing the women with a choice of either assistance toward training or with a grant or machinery needed for those with skills who simply wished to get capital for a small business. This is the first phase of a two part project. As Venerable Rewatha explained, "we felt that the most vulnerable group we came across in the post-Tsunami period were widowed women with children since they have the double of burden of being the sole bread winner and the maintenance of the family." The second part of the project is to assist men widowed by the Tsunami.

"We met many vulnerable people who need assistance with their finances" said Venerable Rewatha, as he went to explain, "we met one woman, a young grandmother, who had lost her husband and daughter and son-in-law and now she is looking after seven children." A woman like this needs a way to earn a living where in the past she was housewife. That means we listened to each women we came across and with the assistance of Neel Weeratunga, controller of Ruhunu Sevaya (local broadcasting service) we were able to assess the help we could give. This was often in the form of grants for training and buying sewing machines.

"If you would like to help one of these familes, especially the children of the family, please contact the Vihara at 0141 5867493.