Project report by Dr Kate Neely (Director of International Programs)
Women’s Bakery School, Sri Lanka
This semester, the young women at our bakery school are doing well and continuing with their studies despite the pandemic situation. Because of the pandemic, Janaka (onsite director of the bakery school) has accelerated the program and the students are currently up to the 11th unit and the 3rd test for the semester. This year we have also employed a group supervisor Githmi, who is a previous graduate, and is taking good care of the young women and showing natural leadership. All the students seem to be enjoying their experience. I guess most of us would be pretty proud of ourselves if we produced cakes like the ones in the pictures here!
Just to give you a sense of the challenges that these young women have overcome and what they hope to achieve, here is the story of Kashvi…
Kashvi is 20 years and has two younger brothers and two small sisters. Her parents are labourers in a tea plantation and work long hours – it’s a difficult life afflicted by poverty and much hard work in raising five children. She says the last five years have been very difficult, as the parents are suffering from bronchial asthma conditions. Kashvi is keen to do well and get employment to support her younger siblings in their studies as well as to offer rest to her parents because of their health issues. She is a bright student and we are sure she will succeed.
Tikondane Community Centre, Zambia
At Tiko, life is progressing at its usual rhythm but with fewer visitors and some uncertainty about the impact of recent elections. We don’t have an update on the chickens this month as Kate and Elke have been discussing toilets. At Tiko there have been quite a few attempts at creating sustainable composting toilets, both at Tiko (which has worked well), and throughout the surrounding communities (which has not worked so well). After a quick survey of the Tiko crew and their neighbours, Elke found that 68% of households don’t have a toilet at all (some share with a neighbour) and 32% have a basic pit toilet. Less than 50% of households have their own well. And 25% of households that do have a well, have a pit latrine located too close for safety.
This month, RoundTrip Foundation and Tiko are applying for a grant from Australian Ethical to help provide training and materials to Tiko and their neighbours to build locally appropriate composting toilets. These will provide safe spaces for women, children and men to use a toilet, and also provide a ‘circular economy’ of food and waste when the safely composted faeces are used to grow vegies and crops for food. Some of the factors that we will be concentrating on will be accessible designs for people with a disability, using ‘satopans’ to ensure that the toilets don’t smell and attract flies, and ensuring that the composting is safe and healthy.