Linda Mahood

The mission of Women Development Centre (WDC) is to facilitate and encourage an environment for victimized women and children, persons with special needs, youth and other vulnerable groups to achieve positive changes in their lives by resolving or minimizing their problems through active participation in decision making within the socio-economic process. Please visit http://womendev.org. One of the social enterprises run out of WDC is Sthree, meaning ‘Women’ in both the Sinhala and Tamil languages. Sthree provides a commercial space for women entrepreneurs/producers to showcase and sell their eco-friendly handicraft products and wood furniture handcrafted by people with disabilities. In order to increase its market share and success, Sthree aims to increase its visibility among tourists and develop partnerships with the local tourism sector. As a volunteer my role will be to help support WDC’s broader mandate to empower some of the most vulnerable people in Sri Lanka; more specifically, to promote the accessibility and participation of women and men, especially youth in all program activities.