Mrs.Thankarasa Rathy, 55 years old, lives in Mallakkam. She has two sons and two daughters and they are married. At the age of twelve, she started to made coconut shell handcraft products with her parents in 1975.
Trouble path of her life so far..!
In 1975, they had difficulty marketing their products because of lack of money, workplace & materials. In that time an exhibition was held in the Sinhala Maha Vidyalaya school. She utilized that chance to exhibit & sell her coconut shell products. It was the first step for her small business & she got new ideas about her products. When she was struggling alone, her daughter gave a helping hand to her mother for the business.
With her daughter’s help, they made other variety of coconut shell products like flower vases, coconut shell teapots etc. The business grow rapidly.
Mrs.Thankarasa Rathy is making a Coconut shell wood spoon
A Step Forward
In 2015 she worked as a secretary in the “National Crafts Council- Northern Province“. Now she is a member of a Women cooperative. After that, she got another chance to exhibit her products in a Foreign Trade Exhibition that was held in Sri Lanka. It was a huge opportunity to introduce her products to international people. They saw her products, making methods & usability. They loved Eco-Friendly products & bought them.