Sri Lanka - Kantha Shakthi (’Strength of Women’)

KS Clients Sri Lanka
KS Clients Sri Lanka

Country: Sri Lanka
Partner: Kantha Shakthi (’Strength of Women’)
Location: Colombo

Details:

In Sri Lanka, about 22% of people live below the poverty line. More recently, the southern coast of Sri Lanka was devastated by the Boxing Day tsunami. CowFund’s partner in Sri Lanka, Kantha Shakthi (KS), has been working to address economic disempowerment in poor communities since 1983.

According to KS, a lack of credit facilities due to high interest rates, as well as complicated bureaucratic procedures in state and private banks, have prevented a majority of enterprising rural women from starting small scale economic ventures, such as owning a cow or a herd of goats.

In response, Kantha Shakthi has a four-pronged approach in its service delivery, as follows:

  1. Sustainable agriculture and organic farming.
  2. Micro-credit schemes for small groups of 6-10 women
  3. Self-banks for women, comprised of several small micro-credit groups.
  4. Education programmes.

CowFunder Nathan Fabian met with KS in Sydney in March 2007. Read more here.