homescontents
DONATE
Green Dreams Women

Green Dreams Women is a U.S. (San Diego, California) based 501(c) 3 certified non-profit that works to empower economically and socially disadvantaged women through livelihood training and micro-business incubation.

Green Dreams Women was established to address the crucial issue of chronic unemployment amongst the more than 80,000 women headed households in post -conflict Sri Lanka in 2013. More than 20,000 of these women are in Jaffna District in the war-affected North where the unemployment rate among women is double that of men.

Our mission is to empower women through training and financial assistance to enable the creation of micro-businesses which provides a stable income to lift them and their children out of poverty. By creating a safe space combined with training and access to finance we enable women to earn a decent livelihood.

Our commitment to the women, community and the environment also directly support the  UN Sustainable Development Goals below

Our Team

Founder and Executive Director

Tharani Jeyaratnam

GreenDreamsWomen was founded by Tharani (Tara) Jeyaratnam, a Sri Lankan born American and corporate social responsibility consultant. After living in India, Botswana and the USA since 1983 due to the civil war in Sri Lanka, she returned to Jaffna in 2010. Since then, she has opened a resource center in her family home in Jaffna. Tara is an engineer by training and has a MPA from Harvard University. She is currently a commissioner with the San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women where she serves as co-chair of the homeless committee.

Co–Founder

Indra Thambyayah

Indra has been a truly valued member of the Green Dreams Women family since 2000. Indra initiates, organizes, and promotes new programs for our staff, members, and volunteers.

Board Member – Communications and Marketing

Wendy Garnica

Wendy spends her weekdays at a biotech company and any free time trail running, climbing, and cooking. A firm believer in gender equality and human and animal rights, she supports any and all Green Dreams Women endeavors and is helping to save the planet one veggie patty at a time.

Board Member – US Finance

Michelle Hood

“I have been involved with GDW since it was gentle stirring in Tara’s heart after she visited her war torn hometown in Sri Lanka.  As a woman and a minority, these women are my sisters.  GDW is a labor of love and I am honored to sit on its board of directors.”

Michelle brings almost twenty years of Supply Chain and Operational Leadership to GDW. A graduate of the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, she majored in Communications, minored in Chemistry and trained to be a commercial pilot.  She also holds a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. 

She joined the GDW board in 2018 and lives in the Chicago Metro Area.

Board Member–US Operations & Business Development

Lesa Thode

5th generation San Diegan Lesa Thode brings a wide skill set and passion for service to the GDW team.

“I was so struck by the beauty of these greeting cards, learning how Tara met the confrontation of squatters in her family home with empathy and sought to help lift themselves up by empowering them with marketable skills, using sustainable, responsibly-sourced practices, creating multiple benefit chains by engaging neighboring suppliers, and once conflict bound villages that I had to be a part of GDW.”

Lesa has served on several Boards in the past 20 years, including her children’s local public school foundation, Girl Scout San

Diego Seacoast Unit, Rady Children’s Hospital Auxiliary, and her community Town Council.  She also currently serves on Kids for Peace and Women’s March San Diego.

Board Member – Communications and Marketing

Yaso Sivananthan

“I join GDW as an opportunity given to me, to contribute back the community I was born and raised. “

COMMENTS? SUGGESTIONS? FEEDBACK?

Contact Us