{"id":7541,"date":"2018-06-14T09:31:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T09:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ceebees.lk\/?p=7541"},"modified":"2021-06-20T02:52:22","modified_gmt":"2021-06-20T02:52:22","slug":"work-or-family-sri-lankan-women-shouldnt-have-to-choose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ceebees.lk\/?p=7541","title":{"rendered":"Work or Family: Sri Lankan Women Shouldn\u2019t Have to Choose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Only 3 years separated the births of Fazeela Dharmaratne\u2019s son Nethwin, and her daughter Pravindi. However, in just that time a lot of things changed for their mother. \u201cWhen I had my kids, I somehow managed to devote a lot of quality time to my son, but when it came to my daughter, I was so busy I felt I ended up neglecting her a little.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a young woman, Fazeela joined a bank in Colombo straight out of school, securing a position as a banking assistant. Over the course of 17 years on the job, she climbed up the ladder till she was a Regional Manager, responsible for a cluster of branches. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2012, determined to spend more time with her children, she eventually opted for a voluntary separation scheme and went to work on something new &#8211; she bought her first preschool and day-care. It was a small home-based operation with only four or five children, but it was a start. It gave her a chance to learn the business from the ground up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Reliable Childcare Makes a Huge Difference<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, Fazeela is the director of the CeeBees pre-school and childcare centres and operates corporate cr\u00e8ches for clients like MAS Kreeda, MillenniumIT and WSO2 in Colombo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldbank.org\/en\/news\/feature\/2018\/06\/14\/work-or-family-sri-lankan-women-shouldnt-have-to-choose#\">The cr\u00e8ches allow employees to access childcare services so that mothers can breastfeed their infants, or stay late to participate in a conference call<\/a>; when the school holidays are on, the cr\u00e8che lets the older siblings join in and the staff are willing to accept kids who aren\u2019t regulars during emergencies, such as when a caregiver at home falls ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fazeela offers these uncommon services because she understands intimately what working parents have to deal with. \u201cI have gone through the same thing, holding down a position with a lot of responsibility and having to manage while trying to not feel guilty about my kids,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldbank.org\/en\/news\/feature\/2018\/06\/14\/work-or-family-sri-lankan-women-shouldnt-have-to-choose#\">so great are the pressures, that having a child under age five at home makes Sri Lankan women 7.4 percent less likely to join the labour force than women without young children<\/a>. A 2017 World Bank report&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/openknowledge.worldbank.org\/handle\/10986\/28660\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Getting to Work: Unlocking Women\u2019s Potential in Sri Lanka\u2019s Labor Force<\/em><\/a>, noted that this association is larger than it was in 2013, when childrearing meant women were 6 percent less likely to participate in the workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Revealingly, the same study found that having young children had no significant effect on men\u2019s prospects in the labour market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There\u2019s a lot that can be done. It\u2019s just that decision-makers have to be passionate about supporting diversity. It can\u2019t be just about looking good on your HR awards application, you have to genuinely want to make a difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Fazeela Dharmaratne<\/strong><br>Director of the CeeBees pre-school and childcare centres in Colombo<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Only 3 years separated the births of Fazeela Dharmaratne\u2019s son Nethwin, and her daughter Pravindi. However, in just that time a lot of things changed for their mother. \u201cWhen I had my kids, I somehow managed to devote a lot of quality time to my son, but when it came to my daughter, I was&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[66,75],"class_list":["post-7541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-world-bank","tag-write-up"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Work or Family: Sri Lankan Women Shouldn\u2019t Have to Choose &#187; CeeBees<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Work or Family: Sri Lankan Women Shouldn\u2019t Have to Choose News &#187; CeeBees :: Daycare, Montessori and Pre-School\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ceebees.lk\/?p=7541\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Work or Family: Sri Lankan Women Shouldn\u2019t Have to Choose &#187; 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