Dewa Rajith Sudarshani was 23 when the devastating Tsunami of 2004 killed her mother and destroyed her family’s home in Seenigama, a fishing village on the south coast of Sri Lanka.

“Everybody lost something,” Dewa recalls. “The biggest loss for me was my mother and niece. We lost our whole property, everything.”

Today, the greatest challenges facing local residents are unemployment, lack of education, and poor livelihoods, says Dewa. “Before the tsunami everyone was involved in coral mining. Afterward, nobody had jobs.”

Launched in 2006, the Tsunami Reconstruction Initiative, a joint initiative of Nokia and the International Youth Foundation, helps young people like Dewa develop livelihood skills and secure loans so that they can develop their own micro-to-small businesses. Over three years, the Initiative expects to reach more than 5,600 young people, ages 16 to 29, in tsunami-affected areas in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

In Seenigama, the program is being implemented by the Foundation for Goodness, a local non-governmental organization that provides housing, medical care, education, skills development, and other services to local villagers in need.

Dewa is now enrolled in a patchwork course at the Foundation, through which she is learning how to embroider and make high quality cushions and wall hangings. She and the other young women in the class are eager to learn – arriving early and staying late. Each also receives instruction in business skills, like budgeting and marketing.

After she graduates from the course, Dewa plans to start her own small business.

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