Hidden Challenges addressing sexual bribery experienced by military widows and war widows in Sri Lanka to enable resilience and sustained peace

This project aims to empower military widows (predominantly Sinhalese widows in the North Western and North Central Provinces) and war widows (predominantly Tamil widows in the Northern Province) by addressing the high incidence of sexual bribery and exploitation against them, which also acts as a significant barrier to their socio-economic advancement and perpetuates vulnerability and intergenerational conflict. It supported to empower widows and their families by improving access to information and services, supporting formation of widows’ collectives, and supporting sustainable income-generation. Also, the project collaborated them with public officials and state institutions to increase their commitment to prevent and respond to bribery and to protect military and war widows from sexual exploitation.

During 2020,

• The selected self-help groups of war widows were further strengthened by series of district level and capacity building sessions with widows’ collectives on sharing and developing positive coping strategies. Partners in collaboration with FRC/WIN, war widows have increased knowledge of their rights and have access to complaint mechanisms on bribery.
• Training on “At risk behavior of children” was held for 39 women from Palai Ds Division. Also group and individual success story sharing was held via Google meet to develop a media articles by individual consultant.
• District level capacity building workshops to Civil Society organizations including women’s organizations partners -2 days

Covid -19 response

• 144 families were assisted with dry ration, seeds, planting materials & fertilizer for home gardening and sanitizers and Mask for Covid -19 prevention.