Starting social business in Northern Sri Lanka after the civil war -PARCIC’s case-

Since April 2004, PARCIC has been working with fishing communities in Jaffna.　After the war, PARCIC also started the emergency relief to provide breakfast in IDP camps in Jaffna in August 2009, in parallel with the release of the people,　the assistance shifted to livelihood support to fishing families through providing fishing gears. The Assistances of fishing gears were conducted in Jaffna and Mullaitivu in 2010-2012. At the same time, PARCIC started ‘Dry Fish Project’ for assisting a social enterprise for the vulnerable women in fishing communities in Jaffna, which includes training of processing fish and accounting, long term monitoring, and marketing support as well. Through these supports, women in 3 villages earned better income in 2012 than before. But in 2013, the fish catch has been very less from the beginning of the year and the supply of material was not enough for this work. So some groups stopped this work. For covering the unstable situation of supply of material, PARCIC has introduced other possible small works such as food processing, incense making for women in fishing villages. Additionally, as another way of the income generation of women in fishing communities, currently PARCIC has started a new support ‘Recycle Sari Project’. These combinations of several works would be able to make their income more stable and make more people involved in the income opportunities.

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