The decades long civil war in Sri Lanka has ended and many vulnerable groups are struggling to rebuild their lives. War widows particularly, find it hard to put food on the table and provide education for their children..

In a paddy growing area, what makes sense for the women is to estalish a rice mill which earns them a daily income. They want to restart their lives through the dignity of their own hard work and initiative, not to be dependent on ongoing handouts from others.

The money will be used for building a rice mill, equipping it with machinery, training women to mill the paddy into rice and a steady income. The project has been carefully negotiated and costed. With your support, construction will commence by the end of October 2013.

Stage 1: Construction of rice mill building – $ 3,700

Stage 2: Purchase of rice mill and set up – $ 2,300

Stage 3: Purchase of additional milling equipment – $ 2,800

Stage 4: Operational grant, purchase rice paddy, wage subsidy for women for 6 months plus business training workshops – $ 3,900

Stage 5: Product diversification into milling rice flour, chilli powder and spices – $2,300

We are a group of Sri Lankan volunteers along with our Aussie friends who want to do something constructive in war-affected parts of Sri Lanka. Much healing and rebuilding is required and we seek to work in ways that support local initiative and not create dependency and relate to people there not as objects of need but part of our extended family.

Find out more about us, including our other projects by visiting http://www.disaporalanka.org

iPledg is an all or nothing crowd funding platform. That means if we don’t reach our target (or Tipping Point at a minimum) we get nothing and nothing is taken from your PayPal account or credit card. If you can’t support this project financially you can still help by spreading the word using the share button and spreading the word to your friends. Thank You.

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** Note – this successful campaign was ported over from iPledg 2.0. Whilst there were a large number of backers who assisted the campaign in reaching its target, their number and details are not shown here