A Community Empowerment Journey: Addressing Violence Against Women and Girls | Booklet Launch and Panel Discussion (online)

Kamani is the Executive Director/Founder of Shanthi Maargam, which explores innovative and multi-disciplinary approaches to increase the well-being and rights of communities.  Kamani is a social justice activist and gender specialist who has worked with youth for almost two decades. She is a national and international expert in the fields of sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, engaging men and boys for gender equality and securing the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Samitha is Director, Programmes at FISD and works as a consultant on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) and gender-related development issues such as gender justice. She is also the Country Coordinator of Men Engage Alliance, Sri Lanka and a steering committee member for Men Engage South Asia.  Samitha has over 15 years’ work experience in the prevention of SGBV at the community level. She has extensive practical knowledge on community-based approaches for the prevention of SGBV. 

Safra is the Director of Curative (Pvt) Ltd, Cyber Market Solutions (Pvt.) Ltd. and Viluthu Chrd. She is also a facilitator for Luminary learning solutions on Public Speaking and Communication. Her expertise lies in Event Coordination and Management, building global platforms, digital marketing, and grassroot initiatives through her experience of volunteering for over 12 years in and around Sri Lanka, British Council Sri Lanka, and running TEDxColombo.

Maithreyi is the Executive Director of Viluthu, which works with youth, women, local government bodies, the private sector and the media especially in the Tamil speaking areas of the North and East. She represents Viluthu as a member of the Open Government Partnership CSO Steering Committee in Sri Lanka, Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Gender Sub-Committee and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict.  

Senel is a Co-founder and a Director of Hashtag Generation which is led by a group of young tech-savvy Sri Lankans working towards building a society where everyone has the skills, information and tools to be active participants in making the decisions that affect their communities, technologies and bodies. Senel and his team at hashtag lead the Social Media campaign #HerSafeSpace for the project 'Empowering Communities to Address Violence Against Women and Girls'.

Charo lives in Northern Ireland and is an experienced trainer on Gender mainstreaming, anti-discrimination, anti-racism and diversity. She is an Active Citizen Master Facilitator from the UK. Charo was the lead trainer/consultant for the 'Empowering Communities to Address Violence Against Women and Girls' project.