The Liya Abhiman organisation ceremonially launched its website at Gampaha on yesterday under Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa's patronage to promote the interests of self-employed women, improve their skills and knowledge and provide them with more and better opportunities to market their products.

The Minister Rajapaksa said that women were making a major contribution to strengthen the national economy and thereby alleviate poverty. The launch of the website would greatly help to improve their financial position, he added.

Liya Abhiman organisation in the Gampaha District under attorney Pushpa Rajapaksa has activated a number of programmes to strengthen women's economic conditions, including mushroom cultivation, dairy milk production, anthurium cultivation, bee keeping, ornamental paper manufacture, handicrafts, textile manufacture and agricultural work.

The website will provide all the information on Liya Abhiman organisation's activities and on marketing products of self-employed women.  The website can be accessed on www.liyaabhiman.lk

The total population of the Gampaha District is 2,294,641 million comprising 593,317 families. Fifty percent (1,179,292) of this number  is women.  In 2009 the ratio of the unemployed was 4.7 percent and in 2012 it went down to 3.7 percent.   Liya Abhiman has made a major contribution to reduce unemployment, according to Gampaha District Secretariat's Planning Director Gamini Wickramapala.

•Pictures by : Thusitha Chandakumara

•Compiled by: Dharman Wickremaratne

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