Sri Lanka: Rehabilitation Through Education & Training

Although blessed with beautiful scenery and high literacy levels, Sri Lanka remains a country where, according to the UN, more than half of people live on less than $2 a day and almost a quarter of the population doesn't have regular access to clean drinking water. Poverty is tough to eradicate anywhere but Sri Lanka must cope with another major obstacle to improving the lives of its people: violence. A persistent and brutal conflict between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil and Muslim communities over most of the past quarter century has claimed more than 65,000 lives. Although a ceasefire was announced in 2002, armed conflict continues to erupt, resulting in increasing numbers of internally displaced people. 

In addition, coastal Sri Lanka was devastated by the tsunami of December 2004, which killed more than 30,000, injured 23,000 and displaced half a million. This natural disaster has exacerbated the violence and poverty afflicting many communities throughout the island nation.

Understanding the context
The volatile political situation in Sri Lanka creates unique challenges for development organizations like WUSC that are working there. Nevertheless, through years of practical efforts on the ground, WUSC has built a record of success by:

• Respecting the specific situation of each community in which we work
• Maintaining strict impartiality in the country's civil conflict
• Delivering quality programming to people from all ethnic groups regardless of where they live
• Being transparent in our operations and reporting
• Ensuring our funds are used solely for development activities.

How we're getting results
WUSC's Project for Rehabilitation through Education and Training (PRET) is tackling the effects of poverty, conflict and the tsunami in Sri Lanka head on. PRET identifies poor or marginalized Sri Lankans - young people who have promise but no prospects - and offers them vocational training that equipping them to work in high-demand fields.

The rationale is that when people secure a steady job that pays a decent wage, or start their own business, they have the means to better support themselves and their families. It also reduces the likelihood of them being drawn into the civil war. They can serve as role models for their peers and encourage others to follow in their footsteps.

Launched in 1989, PRET now trains almost 2,000 people each year to work in fields such as carpentry, plumbing, masonry, auto-mechanics and electronics. Their technical training is supplemented with life skills courses that include savings and small-business development, first aid, gender equality, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and nutrition. About 40 per cent of our trainees are female and, thanks to PRET, thousands of Sri Lankan women have entered non-traditional trades that substantially boost their incomes. 

We also track participants' progress to determine their later success. Our results indicate about 70% of trainees find work or start their own business, have higher incomes than before, and contribute on average half of total family household earnings. 

Read more about our results.

Our partners
To achieve these results, WUSC works closely with more than 50 local partners in districts throughout the south, east & north of the island. They include:

• local NGOs and community-based organizations
• technical colleges
• women's groups
• government departments and agencies.

These partners assist us in closely monitoring trends in local labour markets and delivering training programs at the community level. At the same time, they are able to improve their managerial skills and administrative procedures through support received from PRET. 

Major financial supporters include the Government of Sri Lanka, Canadian International Development Agency, Hivos (Dutch NGO), Royal Norwegian Embassy, Canadian Red Cross, Save the Children (Sri Lanka), and Unicef.

Resources
Click here to access PRET's Vocational Training Best Practices. All documents are in English, and some in Sinhala and Tamil.