Think pink Sri Lanka - women driving for women

2020 has been an unpredictable and challenging year for our female tuk tuk drivers and their families.

Like many, they have faced hunger, loss of income, disruption to education and their livelihood as curfews and strict lockdowns in Sri Lanka have kept their Pink Taxi's off the road. 

During lockdown we provided monthly emergency food parcels for families and most recently in December we provided a school bag, with everything in it needed to start the new adaemic year in January 2020 for children.

As schools begin to reopen this means that school runs, a major source of income for our drivers, will resume and mums will be able to feed their chidren again and care for their needs. 

People are slowly returning to work places and going out and about so fares will begin to increase again. However this is slow and precarious work because our mums know that they are putting themselves on the frontline at risk from Covid 19.

We have provided face coverings and Covid safety awareness programmes and provide regular counselling through a drivers support group to help healing of the trauma that our woemn have endured.

And in the aftemath this trauma is ongoing, the true effects of social isolation are yet to be seen as they are on a global scale. 

However, although we are in the same storm, we are not in the same boat. Social support networks are minimal for our single parent women and the pandemic has pushed them back below the poverty line.

Their resilence is remarkable, in the face of adversity they carry on as they always have without complaint. Their only wish is that their children do not suffer and that they can give them the positive future they deserve.

Thank you for your support through GlobalGiving, it is needed now more than ever.

Links:

• Read more here about Think Pink Tuk Tuks Sri Lanka
• Watch a BBC news report here about Think Pink Tuk Tuks
• Feeding families in the pandemic

What did lockdown mean for our mum drivers?

Living through lockdown has been tough for our female drivers because they are daily workers. When Sri Lanka went into lockdown their income abruptly ceased. Schools and work places closed so there were no hires and daily curfews meant that tuk tuks were not allowed on the road.

The situation rapidly became desperate. Our driver Mums told us 'we would rather die from Covid than from hunger'.

Drivers to the rescue - emergency Covid 19 support 

 The Rosie May Foundation was able to provide a lifeline to our single mum drivers by providing food parcels each month to feed their families and extended families. Our Think Pink drivers helped distribute food to other local families alongside police escorts and enabled us to feed over 1,000 people during lockdown.

Easing out of lockdown

As schools reopened and people started returning to work our drivers were able to get back on the road providing Covid safe journeys for women and children. They are still not able to work to full capacity as hires have decreased because of the is a rise in unemployment post Covid and very few tourists.

Our trainee drivers have now resumed their lessons and have started practice driving with our experienced mentor drivers. It will take time to recover from the impact of the pandemic, as it will globally, however our women drivers are determined to come through this stronger and more resiliant than before. 

The future is Pink.