Prince Charles meets award-winning Hambantota entrepreneur Nisreen

The Prince of Wales last evening met an award-winning young entrepreneur from Sri Lanka, Fathuma Nisreen, at a dinner in London hosted in his capacity as President of Youth Business International (YBI), a Youth Business Sri Lanka communiqué stated.

Nisreen, who runs women’s bags and clothes company Ramsi Fashion in Hambantota, is a beneficiary of Hambantota Youth Business Programme and was named as the YBI Entrepreneur of the Year 2010 earlier this year.

The Prince of Wales met Fathuma at a dinner held for supporters of YBI, a global network that helps young people start their own business and which was founded by the Prince in 2000. “This is the best moment of my life,” said Fathuma when meeting the Prince and said that she would help women to enter into business as a way of coming out of poverty.

Fathuma, who said when she won her award in September that it was her dream to meet the Prince of Wales, has been a role model for women in her local community; she is one of the many women who have started up a business in Hambantota under the youth support programme and has been able to show that women can be successful in business without sacrificing their religious and cultural identity.

She won the award after being interviewed by a judging panel of experts on business and entrepreneurship at the awards final in Mexico. As well as the chance to meet the Prince of Wales, Fathuma received prize money of $ 5,000 from Youth Business International.

The dinner took place at St. James’s Palace and was part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, a global campaign taking place this week in 104 countries. YBI is a global partner of the campaign and much of its global network is involved in initiatives during the week.

As part of the Global Entrepreneur week, an internet based voting campaign was also conducted by YBI, the People’s Choice Award, and Fathuma was able to become the joint winner in that as well.

Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the UK Nihal Jayasinghe also attended the dinner and congratulated Fathuma on her success.

Youth Business Sri Lanka (www.ybsl.lk) is an accredited member of Youth Business International and this year has helped nearly 100 people start their own business.

It operates in numerous locations across Sri Lanka: Hambantota, Colombo, Rathnapura, Badulla, Kegalle, Kandy, Trinco and Jaffna.

YBSL assist young entrepreneurs who are unable to find support elsewhere with a combination of access to capital, volunteer mentoring, and other business development services. This approach enables the launch of new enterprises and significantly increases business survival and growth – key factors in job creation and sustainable economic development.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce acts as the custodian of the National Programme.