Aravanai means embrace in Tamil. A term that resonates with Tamil communities around the world in an uplifting way. As an organization, supported by ITEE Foundation in San Francisco and registered as a charitable organization in Canada, Aravanai aims to empower underserved communities in the North and East of Sri Lanka through Education, Entrepreneurship and Employment, by mobilizing the Tamil diaspora with a specific focus on technology. 

 

Knowledge is wealth, and there’s plenty of that within the Tamil community. By connecting those with knowledge and resources, to those who are hungry for it through Ted Talks style webinars, workshops and mentoring, Aravanai has been able to create a strong ecosystem of support and much needed knowledge sharing. For example, one of our webinars featured Baskar Puvathasan, co-founder of Pager Duty, a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company on the NYSE. Another webinar featured Mohan Markandaier, Managing Director of Good News Ventures. Access to individuals like Baskar and Mohan ignites passion and action within young people. Among many others, Mohan and Baskar have been regularly mentoring startups from Jaffna. 

 

Our partnerships with tech organizations have been critical to our growth- we can’t talk about job creation and economic empowerment without talking about technology. I personally travel to Jaffna every 6 months to run workshops and have on-boarded Amazon’s AWS to all of the universities in Sri Lanka, allowing transferable skills to be taught in undergraduate studies, so that students are ahead of the curve when they enter the job market. AWS is taught to 3rd year computer science students at the University of Jaffna by Dr. Ruban Kandavanam of Aravanai, also an Engineering leader at Amazon, which has resulted in about 80 students participating and delivering projects using AWS. 

 

I grew up in Jaffna during the war and remember moments of extensive shelling where we all ran to bunkers, but were sure to hold onto our school bags, an act that shows our culture’s emphasis on education. Today, there are many vulnerable Tamils back home who are recovering from war and a financial crisis. Diaspora Tamils like myself became successful, and there are more of us back home who can become successful locally and globally. Giving back will foster a thriving community. For example, I worked with the University of Moratuwa’s engineering students to provide problem statements and their research resulted in a few IEEE publications and a patent. We’ve also connected Canadian fintech company Remitbee with folks back home to establish an operations center that will enable collaborative work between Northern Sri Lanka and North America, enriching both sides. 

 

As we grow Aravanai to have an impact back home and in Canada, we’d like to invite your time and support. Please reach out to us here to find out how to get involved. 

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