Card Project Lankahands

How the card project started

A young couple, Aravinda and Indu from Kandy, Sri Lanka, were expecting their first baby. Like all young couples they had mixed emotions. On one hand they looked forward to their first child, on the other hand they were worried about their financial situation. Up to now Indu was able to have a job and contribute to the family income, but how would they manage once the baby was born?

In a country with hardly any social benefits, high unemployment and very low salaries it means quite a challenge to take care of the daily expenses. Aravind's salary would not be sufficient to provide for the little family, let alone to save money for bigger expenses.

Considering this situation we looked for a possibility to help those young mothers and enable them to stay at home with their children and, at the same time, to have a small part time job in order to contribute to the family income. Since Indu was creative and showed talent for art work, we gave her special paper and soon she designed the first cards. After some correction and improvement, her cards sold and a small group of regular customers developed. In this way, Indu contributes to the family income since 2004.

In the meantime two other women, a young widow and an older woman, joined the project. Of course we would like to provide work for even more women. This, however,  requires a constant market.

If you would like to help, please look at our different projects.