By Mary Storrie | Founder
High in the hills of central Sri Lanka, around 115 kilometres from Colombo, lies Kandy — a beautiful, mountainous region where winding roads climb through the hill country and rural communities can be scattered far from one another.
For women living here, simply getting to work, taking children to school or travelling home safely after dark can be a real challenge.
But one woman is helping to change that.
Meet Dilpa our very first Think Pink driver in Kandy!
Today, Dilpa drives her beautiful pink tuk tuk through the hills of Kandy, transporting women, children and families safely to where they need to be.
For Dilpa, the tuk tuk means so much more than earning a living.
It means independence. It means safety. It means opportunity.
Earlier this year, devastating flash floods hit the area where Dilpa lives. Roads were damaged and some became completely impassable to cars, leaving families isolated.
But Dilpa’s little pink tuk tuk could go where larger vehicles simply couldn’t.
She became a lifeline.
She was able to reach people cut off by the floods, helping them get to where they needed to go when there was nowhere else to turn.
And the impact hasn’t stopped now that the floodwaters have receded.
Today, Dilpa has loyal customers who trust her completely. Parents regularly ask her to take their children to school and bring them safely home again.
Women who once faced long walks along steep mountain roads, sometimes after dark, can now travel safely to and from work.
And then there are the girls.
They absolutely love Dilpa’s gorgeous pink tuk tuk.
Her own daughter is especially proud of her mum. She loves being collected from school in the pink tuk tuk, often with her friends looking on with excitement.
For a little girl, it is a beautiful thing to see her mum not only working, but building a better future for their family.
Dilpa is a single mum. Providing for her family and planning for their future was a constant struggle.
Today, she has her own livelihood.
She is earning an income.
She is supporting her daughter.
And she is becoming an important part of her community.
“My life has been transformed,” says Dilpa. “I can provide for my family and give them the future they deserve.”
That is what Think Pink is really about.
It isn’t just about a pink tuk tuk.
It is about giving a woman the opportunity to earn her own income, keep her family safe and build a future on her own terms.
And when you help one woman like Dilpa, the impact reaches far beyond her.
It reaches her daughter.
The families who trust her with their children.
The women who can now get safely to work.
And the whole community that knows there is a woman they can rely on.
One woman. One pink tuk tuk. One community transformed.
And this is only the beginning.
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