Palmera Projects
Our History
Born out of the Tsunami
In the Australian summer of 2004-05, a group of young Australian volunteers went to Sri Lanka to transfer their skills to empower marginalised communities.
During their stay the Boxing Day Tsunami struck Sri Lanka, creating an overwhelmingly different humanitarian crisis to what they expected. Suddenly their role changed to tsunami ground workers, working tirelessly with local NGOs in order to get channel aid to those who
The school these young Australians taught at had 300 new orphans as a result of the tsunami. When they left, they promised to raise $30,000 to rebuild the orphanage.
We Came, We Saw, We Cared
From the success of the first event, a walkathon “Footprints for the Future” which raised over $30,000 the momentum began to build.
Palmera then formalised as a local NGO dedicated to development projects Sri Lanka. In this time through the energy of our members we have funded several projects in Sri Lanka and Australia.
Growing and Growing
2008 saw Palmera expanding to Cambodia to a teacher training program for a small school in Siem Reap, our first directly managed project. We now have an established Cambodia team and a growing Cambodia volunteer program.
Palmera currently attracts some of the brightest young professionals and businesses who channel their compassion, their innovation and their talents to raise funds for development projects and work on the ground to empower some of the most marginalised communities in the world.
Where we are now....
In 2009 Palmera became a company limited by guarantee as well as inaugurating a Melbourne chapter.