- MAS Kreeda strengthens female entrepreneurship in Balangoda
The contributions of the apparel industry to the economy do not go unnoticed. While being one of the country’s main exports and directly employing 350,000 people and twice as many indirectly, as per the Joint Apparel Association Forum Sri Lanka (JAAFSL), the industry tackles many issues, ranging from stigma to waste. While the industry is taking various measures to address these challenges, MAS Kreeda Balangoda has turned their waste enhancement project into one that also uplifts the community in which they operate.
Elevate is an initiative by MAS Kreeda where fabric waste, an inevitability in the manufacturing process, is provided to selected female entrepreneurs in the area, who in turn, convert them into products like carpets, bags, pillow fillings, and dusters. This allows MAS Kreeda Balangoda to reduce their fabric waste and empower the community and enhance financial independence among the female population.
The initiative addresses a key demand that existed in the community, especially as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic: employment opportunities. However, for women, especially in more rural areas where household responsibilities and childcare mainly falls on the mother or wife, employment that requires them to leave the house can prove to be challenging.
Speaking to The Daily Morning Brunch, Women’s Development Office Indunil Mathugoda explained: “The rural woman faces various challenges and barriers that can stop them from being employed. Not everyone can do an 8-5 job, as they have to focus on their children's care and protection and other daily requirements. If they are to go somewhere for work, they will have to neglect household work and childcare. Given this, many women prefer self-employment, where they can generate income while remaining at home.”
However, establishing and sustaining such a venture can be a challenge, and many women cannot do it by themselves. There is a need for support.
This is where Elevate comes in. Mathugoda acts as a co-ordinator between MAS Kreeda Balangoda and the community’s female entrepreneurs. She said she sees the initiative as a great opportunity, not only for her region, but Balangoda in general. Mathugoda added that the initiative has been useful in financial independence programmes carried out by regional offices.
“Our women live with a certain dignity now as they also contribute to the family income, which is especially important given the current economic context where the husband’s income alone is not sufficient for a family,” Mathugoda explained.
The needs of a community and a company
In order to better understand how Elevate operates and the support it lends female entrepreneurs in Balangoda, The Daily Morning Brunch spoke to MAS Holdings General Manager – Sustainable Business Eranga Dilhan.
“This project is all about developing and building communities, especially the female entrepreneurs in the area. At MAS Kreeda Balangoda, we wanted to focus on creating women empowerment by utilising the fabric waste that we generate in our factories,” Eranga explained.
A number of aspects were considered when planning the initiative; one being the community aspect. Eranga said that when they started the project in the midst of the pandemic, there were a lot of concerns in the community, like employment. “What we realised was that there was a demand from the community in terms of employment as the Covid-19 pandemic had hit them. When we consider the Ratnapura District, where we did the initial research, female employment was at 35%. This was before the pandemic, and we believe the impact was even worse after the Covid-19 outbreak,” Eranga said. Beyond employment, the community also needed empowerment.
At the same time, they also realised that MAS Kreeda was generating waste material that could be enhanced, giving it value.
“We wanted to bridge these two, so we connected with a few Divisional Secretariats around the Balangoda area. Initially, we wanted to understand how we could work with such communities and came up with this project,” Eranga explained. This led to the establishment of Elevate.
An added bonus was how it aligned with Plan for Change, which is the company’s sustainability strategy and consists of different elements. Elevate aligned with the commitment of thriving communities, where MAS believes they have an extended responsibility to build their communities, and also its environmental commitments.
“We wanted to ensure that 100% of the waste generated from our factories was value enhanced or was a better product at the end of the day. Those are the strategic elements that drove this project from our end.”
The workings of Elevate
MAS Kreeda Balangoda connects with the community through Divisional Secretariats, and goes beyond providing fabric waste, by also building up their craftsmanship and capabilities and providing market access.
Going into detail about the selection process, Eranga said they first selected the Divisional Secretariats they were going to work with. They then carried out focus group discussions in the respective areas to explain to community groups what Elevate was all about and understand who in the community has potential.
“When it came to the selection of the beneficiaries, we had an open application process which was managed by the Divisional Secretariat. They did a capability analysis in terms of the potential of the women who could be a part of the project,” Eranga said. This potential considered factors like space, availability of a sewing machine, and their commitment.
“Once we got all the applications, we had a screening process to understand how they can connect with this project and selected beneficiaries. Thereafter, we started working with them in terms of capacity building, especially craftsmanship, utilising fabric waste, carried out various programmes, and also started working on how to make it an entrepreneurship rather than doing something isolated,” Eranga went on to say.
Eventually, they were able to connect with banking partners, the Regional Development Bank, to be specific, through the Divisional Secretariats, in order to financially support the entrepreneurs.
Providing more than fabric waste
Eranga explained that different forms of support are provided for the beneficiaries, starting from raw material, which is the fabric waste generated by MAS Kreeda, and extending to craftsmanship, and skills development. “Cut waste is not easy to convert into different products, so we wanted to provide that technical skill to make it a product which has an expected quality level.”
Apart from this, Eranga explained, entrepreneurs require certain leadership skills and other competencies, like financial literacy. MAS Kreeda trained the beneficiaries in this regard as well. Eranga explained that the female entrepreneurs also learned how to make a product that can be sold and also how to pitch it to vendors.
The way in which this project has benefited the community goes beyond providing fabric waste. According to Eranga, many lost certain income avenues due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, Elevate provided a framework for them in terms of financial gains, management of expenses and families, and empowerment.
“These provided a framework for them to contribute to the economy of their families as well as to have a better balance while improving certain skills and qualities.”
MAS benefits as well
Unlike most community-related initiatives, where focus is on how the community benefits, Elevate gives prominence to how both parties benefit. As part of the Plan for Change strategy, MAS wants to ensure 100% of their raw material is value enhanced. However, Eranga said that some waste products cannot be recycled. In such cases, they need to instead look at energy recovery.
With Elevate, MAS is increasing the value enhancement of waste, enabling them to meet one of their objectives.
In addition to this, Eranga explained that there were other benefits to the company. Elevate works with the communities from which MAS Kreeda employees come from. Employees seeing how successful the project is and the value it adds to the community motivates them.
“During the pandemic, there was stigma against the entire apparel industry but this projects helped us to overcome these kinds of challenges as well,” Eranga said, adding that he is of the belief that the nature of this project helped them strengthen the relationship MAS Kreeda has with the various stakeholders, especially Local Government bodies and community groups. This helps MAS in terms of long-term sustainability.
Multiple stakeholders to ensure sustainability
While the benefits of this project cannot be overlooked, it is important that it is not a one-off initiative or a short-lived project. Long-term projects of this nature benefit communities immensely, and MAS Kreeda understands this well. This is why MAS Kreeda worked on market access, for instance, holding community fairs to connect the entrepreneurs with vendors.
“Right from the beginning, we wanted to make it a long-term project rather than doing a one-off thing. That’s why we wanted to have multi-stakeholder engagement, with the Divisional Secretariat and financial institutions. We also connected with different community groups, and based on this, we set a strong foundation,” Eranga explained.
He added that another way of ensuring the project would be a long-term initiative was through the setting of certain monitoring parameters. Every three months, the performance of the entrepreneurs is evaluated, looking at how they manage the material provided and how they manage their employees. This helped make Elevate more standardised and sustainable.
“We believe that everything we do has to be sustainable, and ensure they get the required knowledge, competency, as well as confidence which will help them further improve their entrepreneurship, and expand their horizons.”
The future of Elevate
So far, Elevate has empowered 470 entrepreneurs and benefitted 1,200 family members. “In addition to this, we have seen how it helped maintain better work-life balance and certain life skills that they gain through this project. These have really benefited the communities to uplift and empower them,” Eranga said, adding that the environmental benefits include transforming certain waste from energy recovery to value enhancement and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and expenditure associated with material transportation to authorised energy recovery centres.
“When we started this project, there was a community need that was not being addressed, whereas we also had an industry challenge where we could use this as an opportunity for us. That helped us to bridge those two factors to make this project a success,” Eranga said. He explained that flexibility and connectivity with different stakeholders were critical success factors, adding that working with government authorities can pose certain challenges due to protocols in place, but that they found the Divisional Secretariats to be extremely helpful and supportive.
When asked what comes next for Elevate, Eranga said two factors are being considered. One aspect is replicating the project at other MAS business units. “We have factories across the country, and we believe this is the kind of project that can be easily replicated.”
On the other hand, MAS Kreeda is exploring ways of increasing the product portfolio of the entrepreneurs they work with. “We are looking at certain methods of how we can build their capabilities, especially the craftsmanship, to come up with different products out of cut waste, and also increase the quality. We see an opportunity for them to take this product to different levels of the market, like the high-end market,” Eranga said, adding that this requires certain capabilities.
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Empowerment and financial independence
While MAS Kreeda Balangoda is confident of the impact Elevate has on the community, especially in terms of empowerment, The Daily Morning Brunch also spoke to two beneficiaries, who agreed that financial independence was one of the main benefits they received.
W.S. Surangani Ranasinghe said it was a great opportunity, especially since they can carry out their work from home. “We can’t seek employment because of our young children,” she said, adding: “We can’t work 8-5 jobs with our children, and carry out this work while also taking care of our children.”
Ranasinghe went on to say that she heard from a Local Government body about the initiative and submitted an application. “Officers from MAS Kreeda inspected our houses to see if we have a suitable environment to carry out the work, and said beneficiaries will be selected only if they can do a good job,” Ranasinghe explained.
She went on to say: “We started this with great keenness. And we are visited monthly by an official from local authorities and MAS Kreeda to see how we are working and if we are improving. If we make any mistakes, they point them out and help us correct them.”
She added that she takes great pleasure in the work she does and thanks MAS Kreeda for their support.
“Earlier, we relied entirely on our husbands, especially for money to buy anything. Now my husband asks for money from me. It makes me happy that we don’t have any shortfalls now. We buy new clothes, we buy food we like to eat, and income-wise, we are satisfied and content,” Ranasinghe shared. She went on to say that, if MAS Kreeda continues to provide the fabric, she can even expand her venture, purchasing more sewing machines.
W.A. Nadeeka Ranjani shared that she joined the initiative through the area Women’s Development Officer. Right as she joined the initiative, Nadeeka only had a manual sewing machine that had to be operated by foot. Today, she has an electric machine that she paid for in full in just a couple of months through the income made through Elevate.
“We used to ask for everything from our husbands. I used to feel bad to ask my husband because he doesn’t have fixed employment. But with this self-employment venture, I help my husband financially. We can pay for our children’s education and buy anything that we need at home,” Nadeeka said.
“We already make several products, but plan on expanding our range in future, and this has strengthened not just our families but the entire village, because we have been elevated from being just another member of the community to someone others rely on for help,” Nadeeka added.