Lead agency: Centre for Environment & Development (CED) Partners: Sustainable Trust (UK) Saga Trust (UK) D&D Strategic Solutions (Sri Lanka) From Poverty to Sustainability The aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka, a new threat of poverty emerged in rural low income communities. Known to be self employed communities along the coastal belt of the island they were suddenly thrown into a state of destitution and impoverishment. The influx of international donations that flowed into these communities risked creating a state of dependency within these communities.  Centre for Environment & Development (CED) created a tsunami peoples task force with stakeholder partners to intervene in and empower communities through a process of self governance under the conceptual framework of the Grama Rajaya (nation of villages). Under the scheme, a village in the southern coastal district of Galle (Madampagama) was selected to be the focus of the work.  Madampagama village is typical of the area in that it is predominantly engaged in the coir industry. Low income from this industry and the brave losses through the tsunami placed them on the verge of falling into acute poverty. The aim of the work is to achieve the following objectives, which can applied to other such communities, and which we call “From Poverty to Sustainability” Objectives 01 – Eliminating poverty as a barrier to sustainability 02- Developing sustainable enterprises as an enabling condition for sustainability 03 – Embedding sustainable consumption and production as a precondition for sustainable lifestyles 04 – Promoting and propagating sustainable lifestyles as a foundation towards sustainability