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Celebrating female entrepreneurs: CAN Market hosts Women's Day edition 

08 Mar 2021

[caption id="attachment_123539" align="alignright" width="436"] Pictures from the CAN Weekend Market hosted by Creative Isle in collaboration with Colombo City Centre[/caption] The CAN Weekend Market, organised by Creative Isle in collaboration with Colombo City Centre, is a platform created to support micro entrepreneurs severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Creative Isle initiative supports makers of great products and great ideas from around the island, and also encourages recycle and upcycle initiatives.  Last Sunday (7), the CAN Market celebrated a selection of strong female personalities in honour of Women’s Day. The Market, held at Colombo City Centre, welcomed National TV Channel Derana/Triad Advertising Founder Varuni Amunugama Fernando, Mrs. World 2020 Caroline Jurie, Foundation of Goodness Representative Madhimalar Muralitharan, Wijeya Newspapers Social Media Head/ Daily Mirror Online and Hi Online Editor Rishni Weeraratne, DFCC Senior Vice President – Consumer Banking Gillian Edwards, and The Creative Isle Initiative Founder Keshini Suraweera. They were brought on board to support rural entrepreneurs from the country, and spread awareness on the availability of such products.  Speaking to Keshini Suraweera, she explained the concept behind CAN Market: “The market was a Covid-19-birthed project; after the first lockdown, we realised that micro entrepreneurs are going to be affected the most because they have nothing to fall back on.” She observed that, at the time, people had cut down on everything, so creative entrepreneurs were finding it hard to make a living.  She explained that most entrepreneurs made a living by supplying to hotels out of Colombo, but with Covid-19, all their business ran dry, so this market is an opportunity for them to get back on their feet.  Suraweera added that she has also been an entrepreneur since the age of 19, so she felt the woes of her kin, “That is why I tied up with entrepreneurs who would want to support this cause, and created a platform for anyone who had produced stocks but cannot afford shop space.” The CAN Market houses entrepreneurs from every corner of the island, ranging from Kandy to Galle to Mannar.  The creative products featured are useful household necessities, from jams, cordials, chutneys and pickles to vegan delicacies, encouraging modern consumers to refocus on traditional healthy food options, such as jackfruit flour, jackfruit milk powder (a substitute for coconut milk), manioc sambols, kohila (Lasia) root in brine, and moringa sambol to name a few.  “These products will help consumers move away from imported high-calorie snacks to home-grown tropical fruit-based snacks such as coconut chips, banana chips, and jackfruit chips, which are healthier options to introduce to the modern consumer,” stated Suraweera. It is a genuine attempt to reintroduce natural food enriched with tropical goodness to the present generation, who have opted out of these options in the past due to difficulty in cooking and preparation.  The market also featured various tropical beverages like king coconut soda, soursop soda and soursop teas, homemade wines and many more artisanal food varieties that are sure to delight the taste buds.  Speaking on the creative aspect of the market, Suraweera added that they have handmade jewellery made using recycled waste paper and plastic, eco-friendly home and lifestyle products, which are good for the planet and great for communities, and an exquisite collection of rush and reed, handloom and beeralu lace, hand crafted by a collective of female artisans, who use natural, traditional materials and age old techniques from rural communities in Matara and Mannar. “Since it’s an indoor market, customers have the benefits that come along with that. They are able to shop comfortably in the A/C while also maintaining social distancing rules, unlike if it were to be held outdoors, where it is difficult to control crowds,” Suraweera explained.      Entrepreneurs and artisans, young and old, gather at the Colombo City Centre CAN Market, every Friday to Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

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