Forty-five women have graduated from the latest cohort of BUDS-UK's livelihood training programme, which equips participants — primarily war widows and unemployed young women — with the skills and tools to begin earning an independent income.
The six-month programme is run in partnership with vocational trainers in Batticaloa and combines technical training (tailoring, food processing, and small-scale poultry care) with practical modules on basic bookkeeping, pricing, and engagement with local markets. Each graduate completes a final assessment before being awarded a starter kit appropriate to her chosen trade — for tailoring graduates this includes a treadle sewing machine, fabric and thread; for food-processing graduates it includes a sealing machine, packaging, and an initial inventory of ingredients.
A follow-up review six months after the previous cohort graduated found that 80% of those women were still trading, with the average graduate earning between Rs. 12,000 and Rs. 20,000 per month — for many, the first independent income of their adult lives. Several graduates are now mentoring trainees in the new cohort.
"What changes is not just the income," said one graduate at the closing ceremony. "What changes is the way our children see us, and the way we walk into the market. We are no longer asking — we are working."
The next cohort begins in March 2026 with an enrolment of 50, including the first intake from the recently reopened Verugal Division programme.