Thursday, 12 December 2013 00:00
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If you have been to the Good Market on any Thursday, you are sure to have met Dr. Amanda Kiessel, one of the main organisers of the project.
In conversation with the Daily FT, we learn that an American national, Kiessel arrived in Sri Lanka 12 years ago to work on a project related to organic tea.
Holding a PHD in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, her interests were more in social enterprise – an idea that is mission driven, trying to do something good for society and environment through self-financing and not dependent on international aid – a core underlying concept of the Good Market.
In Sri Lanka for an organic tea related project, Kiessel was working in the Sinharaja area and there was flooding which pulled her into emergency response work. The tsunami hit soon after, and again her priorities had to be shifted towards emergency work, which continued as the war escalated.
Back on track, driving forward a mission she wholly believes in, Kiessel noted that Sri Lanka is now ‘home’ for her. “The big joke is that I did something really wrong in the past life so I was born in America this time,” she quipped.
