Sisterhood In Sri Lanka

Introduction:

Sisterhood In Sri Lanka is on a mission to dramatically transform the lives of women in the country. By providing a safe space, practical assistance, and a network of support, the movement aspires to empower women from all walks of life, ultimately achieving wellbeing and self-sufficiency.

Sisterhood in Sri Lanka officially launched in a discreet manner. The movement quietly supported sexually and physically abused girls residing in a confidential safe haven, through the dedicated work of Rushma, Bhashini, Keshia, Hafsa, Anne and Afra Jameel. Their efforts involved creating a nurturing space where children could open up while learning English. A significant challenge faced by many girls was the lack of employability skills, making it difficult for them to secure employment once they reached 18 years old. Consequently, they turned to another provider who often proved to be abusive and oppressive, as recounted by the carers at the center. Familiarity led them to return to their previous abuser time and again.

The inception of Sisterhood in Sri Lanka came about through the practice of providing one-on-one counseling to over 300 disempowered women. These women found themselves in financial distress, feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and limited to seeking support only within their community due to the fear of judgment, shame and prejudice, should they ask for support from other communities. Encouraging women from all walks of life to unite and communicate became the movement’s purpose. Together, they aimed to foster innovative thinking to tackle the challenges they faced. Additionally, Sisterhood in Sri Lanka offered mentoring for women entrepreneurs seeking to enhance their practical business skills, paralleling the experiences of Surangi, co-creator of the business empowerment workshop series called Create Your Path. Surangi also encountered women grappling with the similar unsupportive environments and feeling lost about where to start.

Sisterhood in Sri Lanka is dedicated to promoting well-being and empowerment through three key areas: education, counseling, and wealth generation. We are thrilled to embark on this journey and look forward to making a positive impact in the lives of women across the country.

Projects of Sisterhood In Sri Lanka:

Create Your Path – CREATE YOUR PATH’ is the brainchild of Rushma Mohammed- Fronczak and Surangi Perera. Started by one mutual thought with an equal passion to work for an amazing project that represents a critical problem in our society that is “lack of emancipated women”. Women being powerhouses need to be empowered to lead their fullest lives so that we can leave a better world behind.

This program is a foundation for all the entrepreneurs looking to explore

How or where to start their businesses, as well for those entrepreneurs who are looking to scale up parts of their businesses or those who are looking to shift their business in a different direction. This workshop series offers master classes from content writing to bookkeeping for a business.

Coming soon to you is our Season 6 Launch in May/June of 2024! Watch this space and our social media for more details.

Co-creators of Create Your Path

Rushma Mohammed-Fronczak

Since her undergraduate days in Malaysia, Rushma has been dedicated to working with women, particularly focusing on supporting refugee youth, with a special emphasis on the girl child. This commitment continued beyond university and remains a cornerstone of her work to this day.
Throughout her journey, Rushma has empowered and motivated women using her background in psychology. She provides mentoring and coaching to help individuals conquer emotions and embrace abundance. After graduating with a degree in psychology, she furthered her qualifications by becoming a clinical psychologist at the University of Colombo. Additionally, she formalized her coaching services by obtaining a breakthrough coaching certification.
Drawing from her experiences working with women in the aftermath of racial riots, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks, Rushma promotes love, acceptance and empowerment among female-identified individuals. She discovered that many women felt stuck due to financial constraints, preventing them from pursuing professional courses or starting their own businesses. Additionally, societal gender stereotypes often forced them into roles where they couldn't advocate for themselves, leading to stress and dissatisfaction.
With nearly 15 years of experience, Rushma embarked on a journey to connect with persons like Surangi who impact women just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic after which in an official capacity this initiative led to the pilot launch of CYP (Create Your Path), marking the beginning of a transformative journey.

Surangi Ruwain Perera

Surangi, a dynamic individual, seamlessly transitions from HR to textiles, showcasing adaptability. At EquityMatch, she mentors global startup founders, leveraging her diverse background. With a passion for entrepreneurship, she offers invaluable insights, particularly in textiles and manufacturing. Surangi's impact extends beyond her career, notably through her involvement with the Robinhood Army Sri Lanka, nourishing thousands daily.

Our Facilitators

Founder of One Day Digital

Young dynamic marketer with 10+ years of experience in Brand Marketing, Sales, and HR streams. Worked in MNC's and Large Scale establishments with a proven track record.

Academically strong background with a Bachelor in Marketing Management with a Human Resource Management Certification & an MBA holder from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK. Also, holds Professional Certifications from Harvard Business School, University of Maryland & The University of California, Berkeley, USA.

Have gathered marketing experience in multiple industries such as Banking, Power & Energy, Fashion Retail, Pharmaceuticals and FMCG in both local and multinational corporations.

Also, possess experience in digital marketing aspects in terms of google analytics, social media marketing, and e-commerce.

Photography & Art lover, occasional singer and a compeer, YouTube Knowledge Activist and a Tech Enthusiast, Online media savvy who is willing to take up any challenge and to adapt to any change whenever it is necessary. Excellent team player, always ready to move with the ever-changing fourth-generation technology.

I’m Dharana Korale Arachchi, I’ve been learning and teaching marketing for about 5 years now. People recognise me as a digital marketer. But I prefer to be seen as a marketer in the digital world.

Marketing was my only profession for the last 9 years. From advertising to sales, lecturing, freelance script writing to digital strategy building, that was one exciting roller coaster.

During this journey I’ve helped many large organisations to small and medium enterprises and individuals to establish better on digital marketing. Innovations, agile marketing and top to bottom staff digitisation is something keeps me going.

Currently I’m heading the digital marketing front of the strongest and fastest growing digital marketing presence of financial industry, Seylan Bank. I love sharing these experiences in digital marketing with real use cases with those who’re interested to listen it from a practitioner.

I am a Licensed Clinical psychologist (Sri Lanka Medical Council) with over 6 years of experience in Clinical psychology and over 9 years of experience in Counseling psychology. Currently, I operate a private clinic in Colombo and practice as a consultant at Joseph Frazer Memorial Hospital.

My academic qualifications include a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Counselling, Master of Science in Clinical psychology and a Doctor of Medicine in Alternative Medicine (Specializing in Psychotherapy, Hypnosis, and Meditation). I am currently reading for my Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

My research interests include dynamics of human attraction and personality-informed Individual/couple psychotherapy and counseling.My academic experience includes my time as a lecturer for the MSc in clinical psychology program at St. Agnes Center for Postgraduate Studies and Research, guest lecturer at Aquinas University collage, lecturer at Archdiocesan Family Apostolate, and lecturer at Kaatsu International University. I have also been involved with program development for the BSc (Hons) in Psychology programs at Kaatsu International University, Faculty of Health Sciences (Dept of Psychology) and Faculty of Health Sciences (Dept of Psychology and Counselling) Open University Colombo.

I'm an American who has resided in Sri Lanka for over a decade. Together with a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk who serves as my mentor, I established and currently manage the Sanatha Suwaya mind and body balance center in Kandy.

Prior to my move to Sri Lanka, I pursued higher education in psychology in the United States and worked as a researcher in the area of traumatic brain injury at a neuroscience laboratory. With over two decades of meditation practice under my belt, I've always maintained a keen interest in health and physical fitness, becoming a certified physical trainer along the way.

Ranmali is a competent corporate trainer and a coach, who is able to develop and deliver programmes that are best-fit to all organisational and learner needs.

Her training programmes are both impactful and innovative.

Ranmali is professionally and academically qualified in Commerce, Business Studies, Human Resource Management and Teaching English as a Second Language.

She started her journey as a coach after completing the certification in Transformative Coaching from Coach Masters Academy in 2019

Off-camera, she is the quintessential Sri Lankan, the underdog and the one who lives life like it's a teenage dream.

Fazla is a highly skilled Language and Corporate Trainer who has a sound understanding of traits needed for workplace success and a strong ability to train employees in improving those characteristics. She has extensive experience identifying language and soft skills training needs and always applies the latest training techniques in her training programmes.

She added another arrow to her quiver by completing the certification in Transformative Coaching from Coach Masters Academy in 2019 and continues to pursue her career as a coach.

On the flip side Fazla is a maverick city girl, who lives by the saying 'everything is figureoutable'.

My colleague Saajith and I have been enthusiast photographers for about 20+ years. I’d been an aerospace engineer for 15 years and Saajith ran some businesses of his own. Around the beginning of 2020, we decided to pursue our passion and form a commercial photography venture focusing on food, products, architecture and fashion. We’re helping small businesses up their visual appeal by providing photography to international standards that is affordable. And so we created SAASH Photography.

At the CYP workshop we’ll be taking you through the basics of photography and how to use these skills to draw attention to your product, service and brand. We will teach you how to do this in the comfort of your home using your smartphone camera!

Looking forward to meeting you all then!

I am an aspiring writer. My interests are books, movies and other simple things. I write content for brands for a living. When I am not doing that, I stare deep into the abyss, appreciating small things that make life worthwhile.

News Article on Sisterhood
Sri Lanka

Social work, to many, represents an industry wrapped around the poor, providing them with services so that they can meet the basic living needs to survive. For Surangi Perera and Dr. Rushma Mohammed-Fronczak, however, it serves as a productive outlet for them to channel their passion for helping others.

This is the inspiration behind ‘Create Your Path’, a series of online workshops which help build entrepreneurial skills in women. Starting off on March 7, 2020, the CYP series soon moved onto an online platform due to the pandemic. Now it is in its fifth season which started on September 7 and ends on September 30. The workshops are conducted from 6pm to 8pm via zoom.

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