8th Women’s Enterprise Graduation Wraps Up In Style

Women are a national treasure and they go from strength to strength day by day. It is to see this process coming in to place and materializing in rural villages that the Foundation of Goodness strives to provide as much encouragement for women in every possible way. Out of the 30 sectors operating at the Foundation of Goodness, the Women’s Enterprise sector facilitates the most amount of training for women.

This time around a total of 238 women coming from 32 different villages graduated at the 8th Women’s Enterprise graduation ceremony. The pre-graduation preparations were diligently attended to by young students of women’s enterprise who worked tirelessly with their instructress, Rashika Krishanthi of the beauty culture course.

The day, 02nd July 2011 dawned upon Seenigama with many more students of the Women’s Enterprise making their way to MCC Centre of Excellence to make pre-arrangements for the ceremony that was to commence by 2.00pm. As the girls soon to be dressed as brides got groomed and pampered with beauty treatments, others became busy with preparing various food items to be displayed at the food hut. Another group of women gathered around the tents that were hoisted, busily laying out products they have created with their own hands.

The clock finally ticked 2.00pm as Fred Jacques, Charges D’Affairs/Counsellor for Political and Economics of the High Commission of Canada together with his spouse Dominique Dennery, graced the occasion as the Chief Guests with Rozaine Cooray, Business Psychologist adorning the event as the Guest of Honor. As per customs, the creative oil lamp designed to float on water was lit by all guests present. Special invitees, Amanda & Dila Weerasinghe too joined us at the event with their usual, compassionate approach towards rural communities that they hold so close to their hearts.

As per the hospitable culture that we so often boast about, Sampath Viraj, Manager Operations of Foundation of Goodness, Seenigama welcomed all guests with a short speech. Next, the guests were taken on a tour to visit stalls set up by students belonging to various courses. Kushil Gunasekera, Founder/Trustee of Foundation of Goodness together with event organizers from Seenigama guided the way, explaining to guests what each stall was about.

When the guests reached the cookery stall, a live demonstration was done by Foundation of Goodness’ expert chef, Asiri Jayawardena for the Chief Guests where they were given the opportunity to taste a delicious Thai dish of rice.

Next on agenda was for beautiful young women dressed as brides to pageant in front of guests. The parade took place in the MCC Centre of Excellence’s viewing gallery while all guests looked on at the brides dressed according to many traditions: Kandyan, Western, Down South and Hindu.

The grace with which village youngsters carried themselves during the pageant, together with the talent portrayed by beauty culture students in dressing up these beautiful brides in perfection, truly stood out as the highlight of the event. In total there were 22 girls dressed as brides, 2 as bride’s maids and 4 as flower girls. This event also reaffirmed to us that every single effort put forth by the Foundation of Goodness staff as being well worth the effort for, we were able to eye witness how livelihoods in this once tsunami affected area has been truly resurrected and restored. To think that this is a community that has rebuilt their lives from scratch after the tsunami and to think that these talents will have gone in waste, if not for the generous contributors that act as the backbone of Foundation of Goodness’ operations, is truly an inspiring story.

As for all of us at the Foundation of Goodness, the talent on board truly did strike the hearts of our guests. Amanda & Dila Weerasinghe, well known for his spontaneous acts of generosity, once again came forward and offered cash prices for winners of the beauty pageant and for every single person who took part. The pageant concluded with the Chief Guests, Guests of Honor and Special Guests selecting the models with best makeovers.

Next came the item of the agenda where Kushil addressed the gathering. He delivered many messages that have goodness and virtues encored in them. Kushil especially appreciated the courage and strength of women to have become what they are today to the society. However, also added a little note in which he stated that what he dislikes about women is their habit to gossip among themselves. Kushil went on to mention how important it is to be honest in the trade that they take up as a career choice. He said that one should practice high quality services for their customers because although the journey may not be all flowery in the beginning, any business will flourish and bring many positive results when people realize that the kind of services offered by some person is true and genuine. He requested the gathering to harness their good virtues and skills and to do away with resentments and negativity.

Fred Jaques too addressed the gathering and stated how impressed he is to see what he witnessed today. He added a personal note when he said that his young son would have been very pleased if he saw the beauty of the women dressed as brides. He appreciated the strength of women and stated that he really believes that women “have the power to bridge cultural gaps”. With this ending note, the next in line to share a few words with the audience was Rozaine Cooray. Being a woman who has overcome her own struggles and who has climbed the cooperate ladder so fast in her career; she indeed had words of wisdom to share with the crowd that was gathered at the event.

Rozaine spoke about four things that will act in benevolence to one’s career path if practiced; a) Authenticity b) Doing what’s suitable for oneself c) Providing value for money d) Realizing that sometimes, you will need to make sacrifices for your purpose. In a wonderfully beautiful end note Rozaine made a humble request for every woman present at the ceremony. That was for them to become the first shining lamp from which many more shining lamps could be lit.

To add to the feminine wisdom of the evening, Kanchana Mapalagama, the District Women's Development Officer concluded her short speech for women by reciting a heart-warming poem written by Douglas Malloch named “Be The Best of Whatever You Are”.  It went on…

If you can't be a pine on the top of the hill,
Be a scrub in the valley-but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill;
Be a bush if you can't be a tree.

If you can't be a bush be a bit of the grass,
And some highway happier make;
If you can't be a muskie then just be a bass-
But the liveliest bass in the lake!
We can't all be captains, we've got to be crew,
There's something for all of us here,
There's big work to do, and there's lesser to do,
And the task you must do is the near.
If you can't be a highway then just be a trail,
If you can't be the sun be a star;
It isn't by size that you win or you fail-
Be the best of whatever you are!

Next came the main item on the agenda where certificates were distributed. Accordingly 65 women graduated from dress making course, 43 from beauty culture, 29 from baking, 25 from general cookery, 23 from patchwork, 04 from Beeralu  and 49 from curtain making all walked away with certificates and gifts in hand. In addition, the best performers for each course were gifted special gifts courtesy of Oriflame, a leading cosmetics brand widely sold in Sri Lanka.

Women who contributed their novel, creative ideas in celebration of the World’s Women’s Day on 08th March 2011 were also presented with certificates of appreciation, acknowledging their creativity on the thoughts they compiled on the importance of the role of women in today's society. The ceremony concluded with the crowd gathered being served the snacks and refreshments prepared by cookery students. For us at the Foundation of Goodness, it was another occasion to mark the strength and courage of a woman and re-affirm our commitment to uplift the lives of rural women.

“If you empower a man, you empower one person. If you empower a woman, you empower her entire family. When women get together, miracles happen.”

- Deborah Lindholm

Proud sustainability sponsor:

Canadian International Development Agency

06.07.2011