The Emerge Lanka Foundation (ELF) recently received its first ever independent grant from the J. Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust. ELF was awarded $2,115.23 USD. These funds will allow Emerge to provide the children at the home in Panadura with individual lockers, padlocks, bead boxes, and copies of the Emerge curriculum. I’d like to thank Charles Ferrara, our wonderful friend and supporter, for applying on our behalf!
Currently, the girls in Panadura have no safe place to store their supplies (or even their own belongings) and potential theft and loss of supplies prevents them from creating jewelry outside of the supervised weekly workshops. This greatly reduces their potential savings generation, limiting them to making only 2 pieces of jewelry each month, averaging $22 USD per month of savings generation. By providing access to secure personal lockers, girls will be able to work on pieces in their free time, making up to 6 times as many pieces per month as they can currently create. This additional jewelry output could provide them with up to $132 USD of savings each month. To put this in context, the average Sri Lankan worker has a monthly income of approximately $120.
Many thanks to J. Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust for their support!