Artisan - Nilanthi Rajakaruwa

We met Nilanthi Rajakaruwa in January 2004.

Nilanthi had been working about 8 years at Golden Palm in the village of Gampaha, Sri Lanka. She started as a novice painter and rose through the ranks to become a screen printer, then painting supervisor, then production planner. By 2004, she was production manager, running the entire facility and supervising a crew of about 65 men and women.
Golden Palm makes a variety of wood and fiber puzzles and games. Our most popular is the crocodile puzzle that has letters on one side and numbers on the other. Each puzzle is cut out of MDF on a jigsaw, sanded, primed and handpainted. The letters and numbers are screen printed. The paints are special child-safe paints from Europe.

Golden Palm provides much-needed work for people who have few options for earning a living. Often, one young woman works to send her younger brothers and sisters to school. Nilanthi has nearly completed requirementsfor a college dgree in art. If she completes it, she will be the first in her family to do so.

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