Set up in memory of Diana Princess of Wales, who beleived that young people have the power to change the world, The Diana Award, is one of the most prestigious accolades awarded for young persons in recognition for their dedicated social action and humanitarian work.
Chiranthi Senanayake, past student of Horizon Campus was a recent recepient of this award for her exceptional and outstanding work in policy formulation for gender and sexual equality issues.
Chiranthi completed an LLB with a Second Upper Award from the University of London offered at Horizon Campus that paved her the pathway to gain the Attorney-at-Law professional qualification at Sri Lanka Law College and a Bachelor of Arts Degree, Specializing in Development Policy and Management Economics at the Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo.
Chiranthi,currently works as the People and Culture Executive at Cyril Rodrigo Restaurants Private Limited, where she develops, maintains and supports a business partnership with the operations teams, serving as an employee advocate, cultural ambassador, subject matter expert and consultant.
Having been selected to work with the Sri Lankan Army to conduct self-development training programmes for former LTTE women soldiers in Mullativu, an experience which fueled her interest to work in youth development with a special focus on gender equality , lead Chiranthi to spearhead HYPE Sri Lanka, an independent volunteer run think tank dedicated towards facilitating the youth policy formulation cycle of Sri Lanka discussing policy level support for gender and sexual equality. As Founder and President she was instrumental in leading the HYPE Sri Lanka team to initiate “Project Nexus,” which registers youth organizations across Sri Lanka and facilitates cluster based partnerships on areas such as gender equality, human rights advocacy and women participation in politics.
Additionally, Chiranthi is the Founding President of the Young Legal Professionals Association of Sri Lanka and a Consultant and Advisor for Citizens, Secretary General of The International Model United Nations.
Citing her four year journey at Horizon Campus as the foundation which gave her the grounding she required to commence her legal profession and social service activities, Chiranthi expressed her delight at receiving the award and said that this recognition futher motivated her to continue her quest in working to attain gender and sexual equality for those who needed it most. She went to to say “Every human being has a birth responsibility to impact lives and empower others. Such a responsibility doesn’t mandate one to create or adopt activism labels but it is more in working towards bringing a smile to those within your immediate reach so that you are part of something bigger than yourself “.
Commenting on Chiranthi’s achievement, Dr. Ruwan Perera, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Horizon Campus, stated “ enhancing students’ career prospects and producing prospective leaders is one of the DNA’S of our Campus. All our study courses are designed to not only gather knowledge in the respective fields of study but to also encourage independent thinkers with leadership qualities. We have worked hard to make the campus a breeding ground for high achievers. We are very proud of the achievements gained by Chiranthi and wish her every success in all her future endeavours.”
Chiranthi whilst brining pride to Sri Lanka through her accomplishment, serves to also emulate that young people today have the ability and power to create and engage in helping to adopt and pave the way for meaningful and postive change in important issues that effect relevant populations in the country.