The demise of a person or organization, whether familiar to one or not, is sad, whatever the circumstances may be. It was with a great sense of sadness that I learned that the Colombo Ladies League, the oldest women’s organization in the country is closing down. I have been a customer at their shop for many years; they sell the best hand done needlework in the country.
This organization was begun by the then British Governor Sir Hugh Clifford’s wife Lady Clifford, in 1912, as a centre for needlework and home crafts, to empower women in need, by a means of employment in their own homes and to enhance their standards of living. Any profits made were also to be utilized for these women.
I visited their office where they also have a little shop, to talk to some of the women who have benefited by the work of this organization through the years and to members of the committee, who have been running it for the past few decades.
The present head of it is Avril Nathanielsz and the committee consists of seven others who have given of their time and efforts unstintingly each week, to promote the work of these employees.
The other seven are Neliya Molamure, VImala Kunanayagam, Sushila Gunaratnam, Veena Jayasundera, Mrs Sonia Fernando, Manel Ratwatte and Lilamani Sirimanne. Among the women who have been working for them, I met Padmini Peiris, who has worked for them for 51 years, Sita Gomes for 32 years and K.M. Renuka, who has worked for 28 years.
They were sad about the closure but accepted the fact that there was no option but this for the committee. Senior members of the committee, Vimala and Sushila said, they provide all the fabric, choose the designs, provide the thread and the bus fare for their employees who come to the League to collect the work.
But, times have changed, workers are difficult to find as the younger ones prefer to work in factories. Also, the standard customer today, is unaware of the vast difference between hand done and machine done work and thus complains about the high prices of their products. The committee consists of women with a high sense of social responsibility, who have always demanded the pursuit of perfection in the work of the employees which is why they produce items of a higher standard than one gets elsewhere.
They produce table linen, exquisite tablecloths, table centres, cheval sets of organdy with shadow work, guest towels, handkerchiefs, baby layettes, children’s dresses and rompers, christening robes. Many of their customers who live abroad never fail to purchase their needs in these items from them.
Their work reflects, local tastes and styles in keeping with modern trends all over the world. It was through the help of the late Elena Jayewardene, wife of the late President Jayewardene that they obtained their present headquarters on rent, which is owned by the UDA.
The late President’s sister, the late Dulcie Abeywardene was on the committee and appealed to her brother, who was urged to help, by his wife, the late Elena who always reached out to the needy in countless ways.
The landscape of their lives will undoubtedly change for their employees with the closure, but I do hope and pray, that some private sector organization with a sense of social responsibility will step in to try and help these women. The committee too will miss the stimulation that their work brought to them and the satisfaction they experienced when they saw the finished products. They will also miss each other’s company on Tuesday morning, of giving in to the sunnier impulses of human nature, indulging in the luxury of smiles, chat and laughter.
They are all perfectionists about their craft and happy about passing on their knowledge to others, who needed it to provide for themselves and their children. I could sense a happy sense of spontaneous comradeship between the committee and employees, unhappy at this parting of the ways.
The committee to the employees was like a life-raft in the raging ocean of life. Fellow women who they could talk to about other problems they face, apart from their work for them.
A sense of strong partnership has prevailed between them through the years. The ties between them are strong and deep, almost an epiphanous experience. The committee and their employees are a mixing of the old and the new, a tribute to youth, age and endurance.
All women are of incredible talent, of unrelenting strength and impulse. As the curtain falls on this organization, it seems to me to be the end of an era; a chapter has closed with no new one in sight.
Pix: Sudath Nishantha