Along with three other Harvard interns, I worked on the south coast of
Sri Lanka for two local NGOs called Navajeevana Development Alternatives and its parent organization, Navajeevana, on a variety of microenterprise development projects that included writing grant proposals for the rebuilding of businesses that had been decimated by the tsunami, conducting a feasibility study for the creation of a business roundtable in the town on which we focused, and assisting specific tsunami-affected small business owners in securing grants and loans to improve their respective businesses.

   One of the more moving projects on which I worked involved the writing of a grant proposal for the rebuilding of a mill that had processed coconut fiber. This fiber, once processed, was sold to hundreds of individual producers in southern Sri Lanka. These producers made a variety of marketable products with it, such as brooms and floor mats. Once the tsunami destroyed the mill, it not only eliminated thirty jobs at the mill itself, it also dramatically reduced the earnings of hundreds of individual producers across the region, who subsequently had difficulty sourcing sufficient quantities of processed coconut fiber to make their products. There were reports that the children in some of these households became malnourished as a result of the drop in family income. Like many businesses, this mill was more deeply integrated into both the regional economy and the social fabric than appearances at first indicated. Rebuilding old businesses in Sri Lanka and starting new ones will, to paraphrase JFK, lift all boats.

   I am indebted to the Kennedy School for its decision to provide generous support to enable some of its students to serve the public good in Sri Lanka. I was heartened to hear recently that more than one of the grant proposals on which I worked has received funding. This and some other accomplishments aside, the biggest impact that I will have in the long run with respect to my time in Sri Lanka will be in convincing people to spend their vacation money in this gorgeous country that wants, needs, and deserves more tourists.