Women's Education and Resource Centre 

"Our vision is striving for a gender equal society."

History

1982 saw the inauguration of this organization as Women's Education Centre (WEC). It was founded by a group of feminist researchers and activists to highlight the status of women in the country and to publish material, which could be used by women in their struggle for liberation. The broad objectives of WEC were to increase women's awareness, their resources, and opportunities for effective participation in the economic, political and social life of the country.

Since then the centre has been broadening our horizons and has made a foray into research on women's issues. Consequently, in 1991, reflecting the introduction of this aspect into our programmes, the organization was renamed Women's Education and Research Centre.

Mission

To achieve equality of women in all spheres of life selectively subscribing to such values as secularism, pluralism and social democracy.

WERC Aspires To:

• Study and research women's subordination, which is implicated in the various aspects of socio-political and socio-cultural institutions and structures. It is hoped that research will raise the consciousness of men and women at the level of society and act as a tool for policy changes at the level of the state

• Promote the rights of women; mainly among marginalized groups (refugees, unemployed, slum dwellers, migrant women workers and domestic aides) with projects for rehabilitation, poverty alleviation and economic empowerment.

• Provide a forum of expression for women writers to share their experiences towards a meaningful dialogue.

• Assist and cooperate with other women's organizations locally and internationally in their struggle for gender equality.

• Update the Resource and Documentation Centre as a fully-fledged member of the global network of research and study centres on gender studies in the third world.

• Lobby with the state and the non-state actors towards eradication of gender discrimination while becoming the agents for the policy change and implementation.

Research

A striking feature of WERC's programmes is research focussed on gender issues. The research that we carry out, leads to publications in three languages. This material is used for lobbying and advocacy with the state and non-state agencies.

The research process:

• WERC has developed a research process through the following steps.

• An area of research is identified at the staff meetings and discussed at the Board level. Emphasis is given to challenging issues in the contemporary situation.

• Research is carried out both by the staff at WERC as well as others who are professionally equipped.

• Research findings and recommendations based on the research are aimed at creating social-awareness, lobbying, advocacy, and used as data for policy changes.

Recent Research Publications

• Vinivida - A Collection of Conference Papers on Gender and Labour (Sinhala). -

• Writing an Inheritance: Women's Writing in Sri Lanka. 1860 - 1948, Vol. 1
  By Neloufer de Mel and Minoli Samarakkody (English)

• Celebrating Sri Lankan Women's English Writing: 1948-2000, Vol 11
  By Yasmine Gooneratne

• Stories of Survivors: Socio-Political context of Female Headed Households in Post Terror Southern Sri Lanka, Vol. 1 by Sasanka Perera (English)

• Feminine Speech Transmissions. - An Exploration into the Lullabies and Dirges of Women. (English) By Selvy Thiruchandran

 Lobbying and Advocacy

• Domestic Aides: Regulation of Working Hours and Wages for Domestic Aides.

• Increasing Women's Political Participation.

• Migrant Women Workers' Labour Rights.

• Code of Ethics for Gender Representation in the Electronic Media

Gender Sensitisation

The Gender sensitisation programme is a continuing activity in WERC's broad agenda. WERC believes various sectors and categories of people have to be reached at all levels in society. Based on the understanding of the fact that masculine and feminine roles are socially constructed, a deconstruction of the process at all levels is aimed at through our gender sensitisation programmes. Specially designed modules and materials are used for this purpose. Specially trained facilitators are engaged in the pedagogy with special emphasis on the areas identified in the Beijing Platform for Action.

Seminars and Conferences

WERC organises seminars and conferences both at local and international levels in English and in the national languages. They provide the platform for discussions, sharing and exchange of ideas and information. Conferences at national level, both in Sinhala and Tamil, take place every other year. International conferences come about once in two years.

SAFRA

South Asian Feminists Research Association (SAFRA) was initiated by WERC, after the South Asian Conference in Colombo in 2001. Members represent all the South Asian countries and the coordinating secretariat is housed at WERC. The broad objective of SAFRA is to disseminate feminist scholarship in the region through research publications, journals and conferences.

Library

Our library is a store house of knowledge, equipped with an extensive collection of material on Women's/Gender Studies, varying from books to periodicals, magazines and journals in Sinhala, Tamil and English, that cover a variety of fields relating to Feminist Studies, Media, Sociology, Anthropology, Literary Studies, Human Rights and Ethnicity.

The library is open to the public from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm on weekdays.

Highlights

• A Collection of Women's Writings in Sri Lanka.

• Reference material - research reports, seminar and conference papers.

• An Internet collection of material on gender.

• Encyclopedias, dictionaries and documentation of foreign and local journals and newsletters.

• Audio-Visual library with documentaries and feature films on women's issues

• Inter-library loan facilities for institutions and organisations.

• Monitoring of main Sri Lankan newspapers in all three languages on major gender issues.

Consultancy

WERC is often sought for consultancy services. Our staff have conducted gender sensitising workshops upon request. We have undertaken evaluation of several projects and have initiated research projects.

WERC is an independent, non-governmental, feminist organization registered with the Department of Social Service.

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