Revival of Handloom Industry.

MWRAF joined hands with the villagers towards reviving the industry and providing livelihood to handloom weavers. A Handloom Training and Production Centre equipped with five looms and accessories was constructed with the objective of training women weavers to produce quality products that would enable them to compete not only in the local market but also at the national level. MWRAF also purchased looms and loaned them to the women so that they could undertake production in their homes while attending to their household chores, and those who didn’t have space in their homes worked at the training centre. Many women benefitted from the project; not only the weavers but also those engaged at different levels, such as spinning yarn, threading the warps, sewing, fixing tussles etc., were able to make a living. They were able to turn out high-quality products such as sarongs, sarees, fabric, shawls, table mats etc., that were on par with the products sold at high-end shops in Colombo.

Marketing was seen as a bottleneck, so MWRAF supported them with marketing the products. We provided the women with raw materials, purchased the finished products from them on a piece rate basis at the prevailing market rates and sold them mainly in Colombo. The profits were shared with the women on a semi-annual basis. However, some women eventually undertook marketing their products independently and were very successful. One of them is considered the most successful entrepreneur in the village, with seven looms and employing the villagers.

Due to financial constraints, MWRAF has had to curtail its support to these women weavers from 2008 to 2012. The Training Centre was not used and thus rundown. In 2012 due to repeated requests from the village women, MWRAF once again became involved in supporting them, providing some of them with looms, training them on designs and use of optimum colour combinations, provision of raw material, and marketing. MWRAF continues to support these women, who produce good quality handloom sarongs, sarees, fabric and shawls. In 2020 MWRAF launched an online platform to market the products made by these artisan women of Marathumunai (URL: shop.mwraf.lk) A colour theory training was conducted for weavers by an experienced resource person, who provided a booklet with a detailed explanation of using the colour wheel of primary and multi-colour combinations in selecting different shades. The training helped the weavers to choose different colours that would bring out better designs and finish to the material. This would also add value to finished items by using the new trendy tones of colour combinations into traditional colours to turn out eye-catching items to attract markets. “My name is Lathif Jesmin, a single mother supporting a son who has had many hardships without a steady income. I have worked as a weaver with MWRAF since 2008 and benefitted from startup funding for my handloom production at home. I participated in many training programmes in business management that taught me to save part of my profits from developing and improving my business. I expanded production from 1 loom to 5 looms, employing five more women and another four who treadle the loom warps.Due to Covid 19 and the intercity lockdown, I faced challenges in transporting and marketing my products, so I sold them in local markets with little or no profit to survive with even a little income. Still, I could not continue and faced many problems. I had to withdraw all my savings and felt very deprived and depressed.”