Panera Bakeries: Livelihoods for Sri Lankan Women

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Summary

During the tsunami, thousands of women lost both their husbands & their family’s income. RI & Panera Bread are providing these women with the training / materials to operate bakeries for family income progress reportread updates from the field

How Donors Like You Helped

Thanks to donors like you, a total of $100 was raised for this project.

Received $100 from 3 donations from people like:

Marjan
(Anon.)

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More Information About this Project

Project Needs and Beneficiaries

Thousands of women were widowed by the tsunami that hit Sri Lanka in December 2004. Already dealing with the loss of their husbands & sons, these female-headed households need to establish home-businesses to sustain their livelihoods & improve the current food supplies of the community. The women gain valuable marketing, business & leadership training. Widows from the civil coflict in Sri Lanka before the tsunami also benefit immensely & help support the economy & development of the region.

Activities

RI & Panera Bakery have partnered to supply the needed flour & other ingredients, provide training on how to run a small business, give the equipment for bread production, & assist in the development of community support groups that give aid.

Funding Information

Total Funding Received to Date: $100

Funding Information

This project is now in implementation and no longer available for funding. Received funds will be used to accomplish concrete objectives as indicated in the project's "Activities" section. Updates will be posted under the "Progress Report" tab as they become available.

Donors' contributions and pledges to this project totaled $100.  The original project funding goal was $35,000.

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).

Resources

Why this Project is Important

Potential Long Term Impact

Female-headed households are improving their current quality of life and able to support their often large families while adding to food supplies for the community. The project closes the gender gap & enhances Sri Lanka's economic development.

Project Message

"This project is yielding wonderful results for tsunami-affected families, & right now we need more donations as the project expands to include more widows of the poverty-stricken country."
- Relief International, Country Program Officer

Who is Running This Project

Contact

Belma Ejupovic,
Program Officer
1575 Westwood Blvd., Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90024
United States
310.478.1200
Email:

Project Sponsor

Relief International

Organization

Relief International - Schools Online
255 Shoreline Drive, Suite 520
Redwood Shores, California 94065
United States
1 650 486 2436
http://www.ri.org

Learn more about Relief International - Schools Online and the project team.


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Where this Project is Located

Country

This project is located in Sri Lanka and can also be found under Economic Development.

For more information about Sri Lanka, read the Human Development Report on Sri Lanka or the Wikipedia entry for Sri Lanka.

When this Project was Updated

Last Updated

This project was last updated on August 21, 2007.

Date Added to GlobalGiving

This project was added to the GlobalGiving project catalog on May 08, 2006.

Latest Update from the Field

Tsunami Widows in Sri Lanka Achieve Financial Independence

By Clery Villacrez - Program Officer, Sri Lanka, August 21, 2007 10:57 AM

At a bakery in the Ampara District of eastern Sri Lanka, 20 women widowed by the December 2004 tsunami have learned to successfully operate a medium-scale business. Sri Lanka, and particularly the long-neglected Ampara District, faces an economy in flux, civil unrest and reeling fuel prices. But these challenges have not stopped the new enterprisers from the village of Thirukkovil from running a successful business.

The livelihoods of women are often the most vulnerable after a disaster, and Relief International prepares its work accordingly. 33-year-old T. Yogeswary, one of the widows now working at the bakery, explained, “I was left destitute due to the tsunami. I lost my husband, a daughter and a sister as a result of this catastrophe.” RI trained the women to open and operate the bakery, teaching them product promotion and record-keeping skills.

Relief International also strives to bridge the gap between emergency relief and long-term stability. When the tsunami struck Sri Lanka and other countries in South Asia, Ampara was one of the hardest hit regions, and an area already plagued by government corruption, sub-par health centers and low-performing schools. In order to help restore Ampara District, RI used donor resources both to meet the basic humanitarian needs of survivors and for long-term development projects. The bakery enables the Thirukkovil village widows not only to support their families, but also to count on a business that will continue to generate income for the community.

RI recently gave over supervision of the bakery to a local NGO. This allows RI to focus on other projects in Sri Lanka, while still being available for support, should the bakery need it. T. Yogeswary is confident that she and her coworkers will continue to support themselves. “With great help from Relief International we recovered a lot and were able to start a new life and provide basic needs for our children. Now we are self-dependent.”

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