Anoma Jayarathne

When life threw the worst shots at me, I broke through, fought back and worked my way towards becoming an entrepreneur. As I ventured through my journey at MJF Foundation’s Mankada Artisanal Pottery Centre, I was able to learn things that were completely outside of my scope of knowledge. When I joined Mankada, my English was very limited and I lacked the confidence to carry on a casual conversation with our foreign customers. Over the past few years, the Centre has afforded me a lot of opportunities to learn new things and improve my communication skills. Today, I work with women living along the periphery of Udawalawe National Park, managing the financial and technical responsibilities of our Atelier – here we train our artists to mould beautiful pieces from clay keeping a traditional Sri Lankan art form alive.

I feel happy when I see my strength and passion become a source of inspiration to many women who have limitless potential to do great things in life. My children are living a comfortable life thanks to the person I am today. They didn’t have to go through the troubles I had when I was their age. We are grateful for our Founder - Merrill. J. Fernando for helping women like us to become wiser, fulfilled,
and transformed.