Published Date: July 15, 2010
By Ben Garcia, Staff Writer, The  Kuwait Times  

KUWAIT: She only dreamt of buying a new home for her mother. However, it remained just that - a dream. Instead of earning a cozy job, good salary and savings she fell into the clutches of a cruel and merciless employer for over 13 years without pay. Fifty seven year old Kamalawathie Katawala has been working for her sponsor since 1997. (Kuwait Times had reported yesterday that she worked for 17 years. However, the Colombo government's records show a 13 year time period). She landed a job in Kuwait befoe the Gulf War in 1990 - at first working for an Egyptian family. During the war, however, she ran away with her Egyptian sponsor to Jordan. At the peak of the war, she was told to go back with her family to Sri Lanka and wait there until the war is over. She did return to Sri Lanka, but the promise of Egyptian sponsor who would take her back to Kuwait, never materialized.

Struggling to accomplish her dream of buying a house, she embarked on another overseas challenge. She obtained a new visa for Kuwait job. This time, she ended up working for whom she calls 'merciless employers' in Jahra. Between stifled sobs, Kamala narrated her ordeal to the Kuwait Times through an interpreter as she could only communicate in Arabic and her native Sinhala language.

Published Date: July 14, 2010
By Ben Garcia



KUWAIT: Case 1. A Sri Lankan housemaid who has worked for a Kuwaiti family for 17 years has not been paid a single dinar in pay for all her years of service. The middle-aged woman is currently in the care of her country's embassy in Jabriya. Case 2. A Filipina housemaid who escaped from her abusive Kuwaiti employer after working with the family for over two years without any salary is forced to remain in the country living on the embassy's premises, for nearly a year in order for her to resolve the case.

Greetings from the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), the premiere Chamber in Sri Lanka!
 
The CCC in its effort to promote Trade, Investment, Services & Joint Ventures, will be organizing an International Buyer Seller Meet – “CCC BSM 2010” in Colombo, in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs, the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) and the Department of Commerce of Sri Lanka. This will coincide with the International Catalogue Exhibition organized at the same venue.

Venue            :        Taj Samudra - Colombo
Date & Time:        October 29, 2010
                                   from 08.30 a.m. – 05.00 p.m.   

A large gathering of Sri Lankans converged on the Embassy premises on 25th June on the occasion of Poson celebrations organized by the Embassy in collaboration with “We are the Sri Lankans” Association in Kuwait.   A notable feature of the occasion was the presence of a large number of Sri Lankans belonging to other religious denominations.