The idea for selling environmentally friendly products, stemmed from my visit to my home land. This was at the time of cease fire between the Sri Lankan government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2004. I had travelled with the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry to set up a trading office. The private sector are urged to invest in North and East to develop the land and wellbeing. On 26 December 2005 a massive earthquake struck Indonesia and this was followed by a Tsunami which badly damaged coastal regions in many countries in Asia and others as far as Africa. The international aid agencies immediately committed funds to address the catastrophe and began to assess emergency relief and rehabilitation requirements. I visited Sri Lanka with the British Consultants and Construction Bureau in 2005. During my visit, I saw a very high level of unemployment as well as the displaced livelihood and destruction of properties, land and traditional tropical trees.
I decided to encourage local people to sell baskets made from local Palmyra leaves, Where the proceeds go straight back to empower people and rural development. The Palmyra baskets are strong, reusable, biodegradable and very attractive.
In 2006, I participated in the Commonwealth Business Council's round table conference in London titled "Investments on Sri Lanka". As a Tamil business entrepreneur in the UK, I requested the minister of Enterprise Development and Investment promotion in Sri Lanka to find an amicable solution to our ethnic problems. The initiative was called "Transformation through democratic practices".