Leonard Cheshire Regional Representative - South Asia Revathy Rugmini (left) handing over the partnership agreement LSEG Sri Lanka Associate Manager - CSR & Sustainability Sara Sadoon

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) Foundation announced a Rs. 13.6 million (GBP 50,000) initiative to help support, up skill and provide meaningful employment to disabled women in Northern Sri Lanka. 
The initiative is in partnership with UK-based charity Leonard Cheshire, an international charity that supports people with disabilities through inclusive education, employment and community programmes.

The initiative titled ‘Access to Livelihoods’, began in June 2021 and is a six-month programme designed to increase access to livelihoods for up to 200 women with disabilities, considering their circumstances, barriers to livelihoods, risks and opportunities. 

At the core of this model is the Livelihoods Resource Centre (LRC), a one-stop-shop where beneficiaries are supported at each stage of their journey including health assessments, psychosocial support, career guidance, vocational training and employment support. 
The programme also works towards creating family and community awareness, providing assistive devices for participants, referral services and career guidance, vocational training, business skills training and start-up support.
The programme conducts recruitment drives, job placement and follow-up support as well while working with corporates and the government to conduct sensitisation programmes.

Via the project about 174 women with disabilities have been supported to date, 65 of whom have already attended skills development training. Key project activities such as vocational/self-employment training, sensitisation workshops with employers and government authorities will take place within the coming months as restrictions are eased.

In addition to the Access to Livelihoods programme, LSEG SL has also partnered with Leonard Cheshire to conduct Disability Confident Recruitment and Management Trainings for select LSEG Asia Pacific offices as part of a Group-wide initiative to spearhead diverse and inclusive hiring practices. 

“There is a long and deep-rooted culture across our business in supporting charitable projects to not only empower and enrich the lives of our surrounding communities, but to do our part in driving diversity and inclusion at a corporate and grassroots level,” said LSEG Head of Internal and Site Communications - APAC Shanaka Abeywickrama commenting on the initiative.

Pointing out that the Access to Livelihood’ project has been carried out for nearly 13 years, Leonard Cheshire- Head of Trusts and Philanthropy Christine Neubeiser said the institution is glad to have made an impact in Asia by providing skill-based training to over 70,000 people and placing over 55,000 people into waged or self-employed roles. 

“We are really delighted to be working with LSEG to not only increasing these numbers but also the awareness around stigma, discrimination and accessibility issues that disabled people face daily,” said Neubeiser.