Eastern Sri Lanka is traditionally where the Tamils live. It is an area of low economic growth, poor infrastructure and, in contrast to the rest of Sri Lanka, with only little tourism. It is therefore poor and offers only very limited job opportunities.

While the government is trying to push tourism in the area, the local communities do not benefit from these efforts. The people have no training, speak no or little English and therefore cannot work in hotels or related businesses.

Fontana Foundation is funding the training program in Eastern Sri Lanka started by STA, Swiss Tamil Aid, a well-established Swiss organization. The program is flexible, adapted to the needs of the local businesses and affordable. The goal is to offer young people, mainly women, very practical training and make them fit to enter the labor market and generate an income for themselves and their families.

Our foundation is committed to support the STA training program during 3 years, training more than 500 young women.

Students can train as
- cooks
- beauticians
- dressmakers
- pre-school teachers and
- hospitality assistants

In addition, a conversational English course is offered to all participants.