Lankan American Penny emerges as city leader in New York
A Sri Lankan who together with her parents overstayed her visa in Los Angeles after fleeing the country during the civil war, has hitched her wagon to a star with her career in innovative international relations; so much so that the New York Times (NYT) caught up with her for a Q&A during the recently concluded United Nations annual sessions.
The headline of the Q&A which appeared on October 7 said it all: “She Fled Sri Lanka When She Was 4. Now She’s a City Leader.’
International relations are often the exclusive subject of governments and even in federal or semi-federal setups, the subject is rarely devolved to the periphery. But for Penny Abeywardena, there is much for a city council in international relations and that too for a city that hosts the 193-member United Nations.
It all began eight years ago, when she met New York Mayor Bill de Blasio to discuss revamping the city’s International Affairs Office, which, up to that point had been known for social events and managing parking tickets, according to the NYT article.
Soon the Sri Lankan American became the first woman of colour and immigrant to serve as commissioner of international affairs. She set out to diversify her office and make it more accessible, by launching programmes such as the NYC Junior Ambassadors programme, which introduces middle schoolers to the United Nations and encourages them to put their knowledge to use in their neighbourhoods.
When New York was reeling under the COVID- 19 pandemic, she coordinated with the UN to obtain 250,000 face masks and donations of ventilators, oxygen and other support from countries which “saw us all struggling during that tough time”.
She will be stepping down in December, after a successful tenure as the city’s international affairs commissioner.
When asked about the change she had brought into the city’s relationship with the UN, she said, “UN employees are real people who live in our city for a number of years. I wanted them to feel like they belong here, as New Yorkers.
“We issued the first Impact Report on how the U.N. brings in $3 billion in revenue to the city, so New Yorkers can see it’s more than just a building on sovereign land east of First Avenue
“This is just my observation, but most of the diplomatic corps, including Secretary General António Guterres, stayed in the city during the initial months of the pandemic. I think that’s because of the relationships my office has worked to build.”
MS. Abeywardena also told the NYT her troubled childhood made her champion women and girls’ rights.
“I’m a 1980s version of a Dreamer, and it’s something I think about now a lot as I get ready to leave office. My family fled the civil war in Sri Lanka when I was 4 years old by overstaying our tourist visas. I was living undocumented for more than a decade in the Los Angeles Sri Lankan community. The only reason I got a path to citizenship was Ronald Reagan’s Amnesty Act of 1986.
“I grew up on the margins of the South Asian American community, so that sense of belonging I wanted the diplomatic corps to have is important.
“When I was 16, my mom became a single mom. My brother, mom and I are domestic abuse survivors. We were poor, but she was a hustler, working seven days a week to support us. I even started work at 14 to help.
“It sounds kind of trite, but lived experiences really do matter, right? You get into so many theoretical conversations with people who are trying to empathize, as they should, which is great. But there’s something very visceral about fighting for women and girls when you’ve gone through those experiences yourself.”