HackaDev Ambassadors
‘HackaDev Ambassadors’ is a network of self-motivated young individuals who are recognized as community leaders to empower other young people on Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship.
The first batch of HackaDev Ambassadors started in 2020 includes 30 amazing young leaders from different areas of Sri Lanka, who work closely with the HackaDev Team of UNDP Sri Lanka to lead and support the young communities to make positive mindset changes to drive the societies towards sustainable development.
Other Alumni profiles
All
Amila B Gunarathne
Amila B Gunarathne is a 26 years old undergraduate of the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, following B.Sc Hons (Special) degree in Information Systems. He loves travelling, hiking, and teaching very much. He is more interested in building a greener Sri Lanka and also attentive to innovative platforms that combine modern technical approaches with the economic and environmental needs of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has a high attraction and higher biodiversity other than many countries and the sectors like tourism and traveling are not sufficiently aided with automated technical developments.
Amila believes that merging user-friendly technologies for these industries and for the other social needs will accelerate a healthy and sustainable lifestyle for all Sri Lankans. As part of his engagements to encourage young people, especially the university communities and school communities, he was able to plant around four hundred valuable trees which he strongly believes as an enormous achievement in his life, since each of those trees produces oxygen and water for the entire living beings.
He is happy to continue his work with anyone who is interested and willing to motivate other people about the advantages of having environmental literacy. As future endeavors, he is expecting to build a platform that supports volunteer forces to find better physical spaces for plantations and to find plant providers all over Sri Lanka.
Being a participant of Hackadev Social Innovation Camp Amila received a lot of experience and tremendous knowledge about social innovation and eagerly waiting to take forward those learnings to his bellowed communities to create innovators/ innovations which will eventually support to shape up a better tomorrow for every human being.
Anne Nethmini
HackaDev AmbassadorsAnne Nethmini is a second-year nursing student at International Institute of Health Sciences and already holds a diploma in Information Technology and is currently completing her Higher National Diploma in Computing and Software Development at Esoft Metro college.
Her education began at Holy Cross college, Gampaha and proceeded to complete her secondary education at De Mazenod college, Kandana. Her interests expand beyond academic categories that involve astronomy, music and technology. Through which she participates in being a climate activist, is currently working as a citizen scientist in asteroid search campaigns organized by the International Astronomical Search Collaboration and is also a tutor in streams of mathematics and science. In addition to this, she is also a member of the first batch of Girl Scouts in Sri Lanka and is the recipient of the President Scout award in the year 2014.
Her passion to make a difference continued to lead her to being selected as an incubatee under the thematic category, “Youth on the move” in the HackaDev National Youth Social Innovation Challenge, 2019. Her mission is to enable the prospect of a livable earth for future generations. Her dream is to be involved in inventions and development of both medical and technical fields. She is motivated by challenges and strongly believes that miracle is another name for hard work. She is an innovator and a blossoming entrepreneur.
As a HackaDev Ambassador she wants to optimize her innovative, creative ideas and her skills for the betterment of the society. Her teaching experiences, leadership and communication skills will help her in becoming a true leader that would facilitate and provide opportunities for progressive change.
Ashvinn Kanagar
Ashvinn Kanagar is a 19 year old second-year undergraduate student at SLIIT (Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology), as he is currently enrolled, taking up bachelor’s degree in BSc(Hons) in Software engineering. Recently, he was awarded with a Dean’s list Award at SLIIT for his excellence in Academics.
He has greater leadership skills, and a good team player, who never hesitates to take a responsibility. He is a technology lover who has an interest to develop his skills in programming languages and as a result he was able to learn the values of electronic studies and ensured more comfortable centers by starting to work as a part-time Robotic instructor at Igniter space to encourage youngsters in innovations that would bring up a change in the real-world.
He is also associated in many sports and activities with the belief of ‘more than being the best in one, being a person of great versatility and wide-ranging skills is much worthwhile’. He is well-known to be a sportive and strategical player and has earned greater achievements in chess and other sports. He has a serious determination to become a social entrepreneur and actively works towards that goal by developing and implementing agricultural solutions to environmental health issues. As a HackaDev Ambassador who acquires vision of HackaDev programme as his own, he is willing to take actions to spread the word about becoming a social entrepreneur and to lead young generations to come up with innovative solutions which will conquer unforeseen social problems.
Bavithra Krishnamoorthy
Krishnamoorthy Bavithra, graduated in BSMS (Bachelor of Siddha Medicine and Surgery) and is currently serving as a demonstrator at Trincomalee campus, Eastern University, pursuing the field of Healthcare and pharmaceuticals. She is also interested in psychological counselling to promote better mental health. Bavithra was awarded for best researcher in pharmaceuticals and has participated in a series of workshops based on research and development.
She is an optimist, Smart, creative and friendly personality who has a key focus is conduction of several social awareness programmes based on Health promotion and prevention, among rural communities and school children. Further, she is also interested in communicating with people, identification of problems, developing solutions with strong interpersonal skills.
Further, Hackadev; National Youth Social Innovation Challenge 2019 played a major role in upgrading her skills in a different perspective. As a HackaDev Ambassador, she initiates youngsters to make significant changes in the world to make it a better place for all living beings and to attain the SDG goals 2030 through extensive volunteering efforts.
Buddhika Priyabashana
Buddhika Priyabhashana is working as a software engineer at Arimac Lanka and he completed his BSc. (Special) degree in Information Systems from Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka with flying colors. He studied at Dharmaraja College Kandy. He is passionate about cloud computing, machine learning and IoT. He is also a researcher and has five research publications related to above mentioned areas of technologies. With his achievements, he has been recognized by Google as an emerging developer.
He is able to play different roles in many different areas. He has served as an executive committee member of societies at his university. Buddhika is the founder of one of the tech communities. He is working with IT-related students from all universities and he has taken steps to increase the technical knowledge of those students. Further, he is contributing to many major tech and social communities of Sri Lanka and playing lead roles to empower the young generation to adapt to the world of technological industry.
Buddhika is a person who shares what he has learned with others to enhance his knowledge by organizing sessions and events. He has participated in hackathons and achieved winning prizes as well. In addition to this he is a hockey player from his school days and his team has marked a lot of achievements in various tournaments.
Buddhika likes to get to know new people, work with them and try to expand his network. Believing that networking is one of powerful ways to gain and give back, he is always willing to support others and cooperate with them.
As a HackaDev Ambassador, he is looking forward to using his knowledge, experience and attitudes for the betterment of society. He expects to work with the HackaDev community to discover the hidden talents of the young people around and use their ideas and activities to build a sustainable Sri Lanka.
Chamini Fernando
Chamani Fernando is an undergraduate of University of Jaffna who followed Bachelor of Science Degree in Physical Science, majoring in Computer Science and Physics. She was one of the co-founders of FixMy.lk which was launched to compete in HackaDev; National Youth Social Innovation Challenge 2018. The project was mainly focused on the issue of unemployed youth in Sri Lanka. She volunteered for the project as the Head of Operations, Digital Marketing Manager and Executive Recruiting Officer. She also possesses experience as a banker. Currently, she is pursuing her own dream of becoming a digital marketer and a writer.
Chamani was a bright student of Gankanda Central College, Pelmadulla. She possesses tremendous leadership skills and also participated in many competitions including Sports, IT, Languages, Literature, Quizzes throughout her school days and at university which were able to sharpen up her as a multi-talented personality.
During her school life, she was also into media and she provided her active service to the school’s media unit as the President, the Main News Editor and the Announcer. As a result of her experience while staying in Jaffna, Chamani enjoys working with diverse cultural groups as she quickly adapts to situations and respects each and every cultural difference. She is a fast learner and also loves to think out of the box. Chamani does social media content creation, photo editing, reading, poetry and writing as her hobbies. She likes to travel, explore new places and food and also study about different cultures.
As a HackaDev Ambassador and an entrepreneur, she aims to find a solutions to support low-income, talented children in rural areas and to empower the presence of women in each and every field, also to assist and guide the youth who seek opportunities to show their hidden talent in innovation to the world.
Chathumi Bandara
Chathumi Bandara is 22 years old second-year student at the University of Colombo, Faculty of Arts. While she was studying in the school, she engaged in aesthetic activities, especially dancing, as an extracurricular activity where she was recognized for her efforts as well. Further, she is more interested in singing, dancing, public speaking, volunteering, and advocacy.
She has attained the BRONZE STANDARD OF THE DUKE of EDINBURGH’S INTERNATIONAL AWARD when she was at school and it was one of her major achievements in her life.
Chathumi expects to get herself involved in the social services sector as her future career after graduation. As a HackaDev Ambassador, she would like to fulfil the responsibilities of community leadership to empower other young people through utilizing her experiences, knowledge and capabilities to successfully propagate the message of the importance of Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship among young people in her community and to create a platform to accomplish their innovative ideas in a pragmatic manner.
Devindee Senanayake
A HackaDev Ambassador, Devindee Senanayake is a 23 years old undergraduate student following BSc in Biological Science in University of Colombo, Faculty of Science and also doing a lot of extracurricular activities. She is an announcer and a blogger of Colombo Beacon, a member of Euphony (the official choir of faculty of Science, University of Colombo), an active member of a number of clubs and organizations of her university and faculty such as Leo, Rotaract, Colombo Beacon, Euphony, BEEZ, Computer lounge and library. She is a co-founder of RD Labs which is an innovation-based tech company and ‘Gaweshanaya’ which is a great platform for beginners who are interested in audio, visual fields (videography, video editing etc.).
She is a good speaker who has won the regional & district first places and has been a finalist in all island speaker contests, several times at several contests. Devindee is a team member of backSlash which was one of the winning teams in HackaDev National Youth Social Innovation Challenge, 2018. The award for most popular short films in Raigam SoMe Awards, 2019 won by the short film in which Devindee was the main actress.
In brief, Devindee is a person with leadership qualities, an organizer, an artist who is talented in music, acting and painting, a photographer, a photo editor, a designer, an announcer, a blogger, a volunteer, an athlete and most importantly an animal lover. Nevertheless, she has always shown great performance in academics.
She always hopes and acts for empowering women, for a greener world, for a society with equality and justice. As a HackaDev Ambassador, she will serve the society with dedication, courage and with an innovative mindset to make those wishes into a reality while being a proud Sri Lankan who will always try to bring pride for Sri Lanka.
Dilooshanan Tharmalingam
Dilooshanan Tharumalingam is currently following a B.Sc. degree in Agriculture in Eastern University of Sri Lanka. He is a good basketball player with team spirit and being a travel enthusiast, excellent photographer and cricket lover, he has the potential to expertly mentor people with his experience, communication skills and decision-making abilities.
Besides his educational achievements, he is interested in starting his own enterprise with his co-partners to support unemployed youth communities in specific areas through creating a more enabling environment for them via his ideas. With his strong personality as a blessing, he loves to encourage people to achieve their life goals.
So, having impressive leadership qualities, he joined hands with the HackaDev Ambassadors programme to discover the talents of today’s youth and to drive them towards changing the world through Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship.
Divya Akshara
Dhivya Akshara is 24 years old second year student, at the Eastern University of Sri Lanka who is currently reading for her Bachelor of Agriculture (Hons). She is recognized as an ambassador of the HackaDev programme at United Nations Development Program Being an ambassador of the HackaDev Programme she believes that she can support the people who are willing to become social entrepreneurs around her area, by empowering them to cross their barriers to creating impactful solutions.
Thus, she is a member of V force as well while being passionate about her skills to be a photographer during her leisure time. She completed her education until her ordinary level in Badulla Tamil Girls High School;one of the leading high schools in Uva province, Sri Lanka and completed the rest of school education at Kotagala Tamil Maha Vidhyalayam, Nuwara Eliya. She is a passionate and dedicated individual to make her dreams true in her professional career and more enthusiastic towards social innovation and social entrepreneurship.
Hasara Samson
Hasara Samson is a 23-year-old undergraduate, following a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology in University of Moratuwa. Parallelly to the degree, he’s a CIMA student who holds a Diploma in Management Accounting (CIMA).
He worked in the Executive Board of AIESEC in University of Moratuwa as the Vice President for Incoming Global Volunteer where he was involved in activities such as project management, team management and stakeholder management. Hasara has finished his secondary education at Royal College, Colombo 07.
His career aspirations lie in the field of Data Science & Business Intelligence and he has a special passion towards volunteering. Apart from that he loves to read and he’s a huge movie buff. As a HackaDev Ambassador, Hasara expects to contribute to society by empowering youth, sharing knowledge and assisting in technological aspects where his expertise lies.
Hasheefa Faze
Hasheefa Faze is a 20-year-old law grad who has graduated from the University of Wolverhampton and is currently waiting for the Sri Lankan law college intake. She has been the captain of the debate team and has earned several awards in regional oratory competitions and has participated in various leadership programs. She took part in the 2019 HackaDev National Youth Innovation Challenge and is currently a HackaDev Ambassador.
She is driven by the belief that everyone is innately capable of changing the world to a better place.
Hasheefa’s passion for positively impacting the world extends beyond HackaDev. She works as a remote-based tutor for schools based in London and helps kids in understanding mathematics in a more fun and enjoyable way. She also works as a journalist at a newly initiated magazine called “Respect”. Her passion to change the world to a better place has finally taken a huge step forward with the support of HackaDev.
Jayanthan Amalanadan
Jayanthan Amalanathan is a 23-year-old community worker. He is a mechatronic undergraduate of Uva Wellassa University Sri Lanka. He is working as a part-time employee at DreamSpace academy as a guardian of the mechanical and electronic lab. He is passionate about tackling socio-economic and environmental challenges through his expertise in Mechanical and Electronic engineering.
He is a founding member of DreamSpace Academy; a social innovation centre. He is the founder, director – operations and team management of Sagacious Youth Lead Consortium (SYLC); a youth organization that creates platforms to empower youth in decision making, partnerships and leadership. He is the founder of “You” “We” “Us” initiative; a community in universities to empower and engage students to utilize the national and international opportunities.
He worked as the regional coordinator for the Youth for Love and Life (YLL); a youth wing of the center for peacebuilding and reconciliation. He has also been working as a Divisional Coordinator – Sustainable Development Goals Youth Council for Climate Action at the Sri Lanka United Nations Friendship Organization (SUNFO).
Jayanthan possesses the skills in facilitation, research, human resource management, photography, event coordination and many others. He volunteered as an organizing committee member and co-facilitated at Youth4Youth initiative of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). He also has been Volunteering as for Inner-Search; a foreign exchange programme and has worked as a research assistant for a PhD related to Human and Wildlife Conflict.
He has done research related to Climate Change, Waste management, Water resource management and agriculture and published papers in National and International conferences. He has presented “Optimizing effective use over the current practice of waste management in Sri Lanka and its impact on Climate Change” at the International Climate Change Conference (ICCC).
He is a Gold awardee of Duke of Edinburgh International award programme. He won ASU Watson Sustainability Solution Awards of Arizona State University and the winner in the National Science Research project competition conducted by the national science foundation under the Ministry of Research and Technology.
He played Chess and Table tennis in National levels representing Shivananda National School and represented Uva Wellassa university for Sri Lankan University Games (SLUG). He also has a passion towards wildlife and photography.
As a HackaDev Ambassador, he is looking forward to engaging and working with the community at the grass-root level. He also would like to deliver different aspects of Community Innovation to the next generation through sharing his knowledge, expertise, experience and skills.
Kasun Hasanga Gunawardane
Kasun Hasanga is a 22 Years old undergraduate at the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Computing and Information System with an energetic personality. He is interested in Information System, Web and Mobile Application Development and is currently studying further on the mentioned streams with expectation of becoming an expert on those areas.
Kasun believes that getting selected to the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka as one of the great achievements in his life and coming to the final 12 selected teams of HackaDev National Youth Social Innovation Challenge 2019 as another important achievement. Further, he considers the journey forward as a HackaDev incubatee as a great opportunity for him to stand as a social entrepreneur and support the community to make the world a better place. He believes experiential learning is the best way to learn new things. He is currently working on a project which is based on an idea to store certificates safely and another idea to make a connection between students from rural areas and teachers from urban areas for efficient studies. He is also interested in empowering youth, innovation and partnerships while contributing to make Sri Lanka a better place with the great support of the HackaDev Ambassador programme. Kasun engages in sports such as swimming and carrom and is a member of the swimming team in his university.
Methdasun Sandamal
Kariyawasam Thanthirige Methdasun Sandamal is a third-year student of the Faculty of Technology, University of Ruhuna, who has been nationally and internationally recognized for his inventions and innovations at a very tender age.
Being a student of the very first batch enrolled in the Faculty of Technology, University of Ruhuna, Methdasun has brought name and fame to the faculty, the university and the country at large.
In 2018, a team from the Faculty of Technology, led by Methdasun, participated in the HackaDev National Youth Social Innovation Challenge, which was organized by UNDP along with its partners UNFPA, ICTA, Citra Social Innovation Lab, CITI Sri Lanka and the then Ministry of Digital Infrastructure & Information Technology. Their project was on preventing sexual harassment in public transportation. This was recognized as the best outstanding project in the competition in the relevant thematic category. The winning team led by Methdasun represented Sri Lanka in the Youth Co-lab Summit in Vietnam in 2019 as well.
In 2018, Methdasun also participated in the ‘Sahasak Nimavum’ National Invention Exhibition and Competitions organized by the SLIC and won the Gold Medal for transportation-related inventions and innovations in the university category. His award-winning invention was a handle system that enables the handlebar of two/three-wheelers to steer the pivoting front wheel steadily making the vice versa fully impossible. For this invention, Methdasun was given an opportunity to take part in Bangkok International Intellectual Property Invention, Innovation and Technology Exposition (IPIITEX) in Thailand. There he won a Gold Medal and two other special awards of excellence from the World Women Entrepreneurs Association (WWEA) and the Indian Innovators Association (IIA). Again in 2019, he competed in the ‘Sahasak Nimavum’ and secured a Gold Medal again for a similar handle system which was developed for tiller boats preventing the pressure of water waves reaching the controller’s hands through the tillers. Methdasun was awarded the ‘Dasis Lifetime Award’ by the SLIC in 2019 in recognition of the eminence he has attained as an emerging young inventor.
Methdasun has made some university level achievements as well. In 2019, the project model he proposed to address the difficulties faced by new inventors in commercializing their inventions was the winner in the Idea Cloud Digital Disruption Programme organized by the Faculty of Management, University of Ruhuna. In this project, Methdasun came up with a Course Unit named ‘Design Thinking for Inventors (DTI)’ and a platform that can deal with both entrepreneurs and buyers through the internet which enables inventors to commercialize their inventions. He also won the award for the Best Inventor of the Southern Universities in Ruhuna Invention and Innovation Exhibition (RIIE) in both 2018/2019. In addition to his talents in invention and innovation, Methdasun once proved himself to be a talented dancer. The team including him became the first runner up of the Freestyle Dancing Category of the Interfaculty Dancing and Literary Competitions organized by the Cultural Center, University of Ruhuna in 2017. In 2020 he has been awarded the vice chancellor’s award for being the best outstanding student inventor in the University of Ruhuna 2019.
Methdasun has done a lot of other extracurricular activities too. He has engaged himself in scouting, cadetting and senior prefect’s guild in his school days. While studying at Dehiattakandiya National School, Methdasun and 2499 other scouts won the 29th Asia Pacific Regional Jamboree award out of 10,000 scouts who participated in the seven-day jamboree. He considers this victory as a turning point in his life. Being a member of the AIESEC Global Organization, University of Ruhuna, once, Methdasun became one of the leaders of Outgoing Global Volunteering (OGV) section in AIESEC Global volunteer programme. He is also an active member of the Leo Club and Gavel Club of the University of Ruhuna.
Mohamed Suhail
Mohammad Suhail (aged 25) is a Community builder, who has completed HND in Biotechnology and is reading for B.A in Social Science at Open University of Sri Lanka. Suhail always concerns about the purpose of his existence and what he does in each moment to make his existence meaningful.
He has experience as a CBR field officer for Child fund Sri Lanka and served as organizing committee member and Co Facilitator at Youth4youth symposiums which was initiated by UNFPA. He has been a Youth Coordinator at Center for PeaceBuilding and Reconciliation in the Youth initiative Youth for Love and life movement. Now he is working as Wet Lab Guardian at DreamSpace Academy, on accounts, logistics administration and coordination at SYLC, and as a peace builder under YPS (Youth Peace Coalition).
As he is passionate in the field of peace building, he has been freelancing as a volunteer peace worker in this field over the past 09 years. Also, he is a science-based researcher in the past years. Through his experiences and knowledge, he is always passionate to merge his science-based education with his career and community development, where he is interested to work in the climate change crisis and community development through science innovation.
As a result, he achieved to be an official youth delegate for Global Partnership Summit 2017. As always, his passion towards serving the community through his knowledge and experience, he wanted to be a community developer and biohacker. Being a traveler, a reader and a HackaDev Ambassador he wants to encourage and develop more social innovation by sharing the knowledge gained through the HackaDev programme and he believes that his role as a HackaDev Ambassador will be a part his of community development activities.
“Your time is Now and What you do with it is what matters”
-Steven Cuoco-
Navaprasanth Navendran
Navaprasanth is a social entrepreneur and researcher in Sri Lanka.
He is 28 and at the end of the learning stage about startups and trying to implement his solution for the community which was deadly affected by the Eelam war. He has noticed that his community has recovered from the negative effects of the war, but the quick changes in the lifestyle and behaviors of the people making them vulnerable for non-communicable diseases.
Now he is in the process of bringing in a solution to reduce premature mortality that occurs due to NCDs in Jaffna through maintaining better physical and mental health through cycling activities.
He graduated from University of Peradeniya and worked with World Vision Lanka (Nuwara-Eliya AP 2017), ACTED (UVA and Central Provinces 2018) and Yarl IT Hub (Thulir, Social Innovation Center 2019).
He is involved and interested in teaching social innovation and its importance to the youth while promoting environmental-friendly lifestyle in Jaffna through experiential learning approach and dreaming to create an international multi sectoral innovation centre/makerspace with a unique character to promote effective ways of social innovations.
Nethmi Wijesinghe
Nethmi Wijesinghe is a third-year undergraduate following the BSc (Hons) in Information Technology degree at the University of Moratuwa. She is also a member of the CIMA professional body where she holds a Diploma in Management Accounting. Nethmi had her secondary education at Musaeus College, Colombo 07, where she not only excelled in academics but also in extracurricular activities being a part of the college scrabble team thus proving her versatility.
Continuing the game at University, she has achieved many awards making justice to her talent.
Music and crafting have always been a part of Nethmi’s life which adds a blend of aesthetics to her personality. On her way to pursue her career in Statistics & Data Science, she expects to share her knowledge and potential to contribute to the betterment of society. Being a HackaDev ambassador, Nethmi considers this as an opportunity to share her knowledge with young entrepreneurs and to make their ideas a reality while enhancing herself.
Nikita Fernando
Nikita Fernando being a young 20 year old Chief Operating Officer (COO) of AgriGo, is currently following her BIS degree programme in the University of Sri Jayawardenapura and also does an external degree programme in Software Engineering at the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT).
Apart from her educational achievements, she also possesses a good leadership quality and proved it by being a prefect in a leading Colombo school (Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya) in the years 2017 and 2018.
Holding up a strong and powerful personality, she joined hands with her friends to start their own company.
Having these qualities in herself, she also became a HackaDev Ambassadors to discover the talents of the modern youth and build up entrepreneurs for the nation. Herself being a creative person could bring up innovative ideas which could be benefitted by the modern youth. Holding up these potentials, she could mentor people with her ideas and her communication skills to build up entrepreneurs and responsible citizens to the nation.
Nivartana Sandeepani
W. Nivarthana Sandeepani is a 25-year-old fresh graduate from Department of Computing and Information Systems, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. She started her placement as an Associate Software Engineer at N-Able (Pvt) Ltd. During her undergraduate period, she has done a one-year research under the topic of “A low cost Internet Of Things (IOT) based solution for remote online water quality monitoring in water resources” under the immense guidance of supervisors from her university, National Water Supply and Drainage Board and SLT Muve. She analyzed drawbacks in current systems, acquired current requirements for water quality monitoring through interviews with a selected pool of limnology experts, medical doctors and engineers from the national water supply and drainage board, and finalized a viable solution to address the issues and enhance decision making in water quality management.
She completed her primary and secondary education at WP/KE Vishaka Balika Vidyalaya, Sapugaskanda. She followed physical science (combined maths, chemistry and physics) for Advanced Level and was selected for university where she occupied a second upper by securing a GPA more than 3.4. This four-year degree programme made her more capable in providing solutions to real life problems via applications and technologies in computer science.
She is very interested in extracurricular activities that makes her more active including announcing, debating, hiking, exploring nature and swimming. She was the vice-captain of the university swimming team as well. She has participated in seminars, conferences, training programmes, coding competitions and innovation camps too. Further, she writes blog articles and participates in volunteering activities to ensure that she gives back the gained knowledge and experiences.
She wishes to utilize and enhance her knowledge for the benefit of her, country and the entire world in the end. As an HackaDev ambassador she wishes to share gained knowledge and experience with enthusiastic communities to drive the nation towards success.
Nuha Kaleel
Nuha Kaleel is a 20-year-old Psychology student, currently enrolled for her higher education at ICBT Kandy. Having completed her diploma in general psychology and also a course in psychology and counseling skills from the University of Peradeniya she is looking forward to obtaining her degree from Cardiff Metropolitan University.
She has been well recognized in her school for her academic performance as well as her active participation in extracurricular activities and excellent leadership skills. She is well known for her flair in oratory and debate competitions. She has been a part of island level oratory competitions and has also been well appreciated for her performances as a debater in inter and intra school levels.
Nuha was one of the few selected delegates from Sri Lanka who was a representative under the UNDP committee at the Asia World Model United Nations which was held in Bali for the year 2019 which carried the theme “Implementing world agenda 2030” and she was honored with the ‘best position paper award’ for her excellent writing (her stance on the world issues based on the theme).
Her areas of interests include reading and writing, she loves reading and is open to any genres when it comes to reading and she is also an amateur writer who desires to become a professional writer one day.
She is also keenly interested in pursuing her interests in Psychology thus she aims to become a mental health advocate and a therapist. Furthermore, she aspires to become a social activist and also carry her interests in social work.
She has always been highly passionate about empowering the students and youth about world issues and creating awareness as to how they can contribute to creating a change in the society. As a HackaDev Ambassador now she feels even more inspired to do this and thus she is working on creating awareness programs among students in her community to enlighten and educate them on social issues.
Nuha is a very passionate individual who strongly feels that she cannot be restricted to a single position and thus aims to have a wider range of exposure based on her interests.
S. Kisho Kumar
Kisho Kumar is a social entrepreneur, researcher and documentary photographer based in Hatton, Sri Lanka.
In the year 2008, while he was on a photography expedition, he captured a picture of a young girl carrying a toddler, whom he thought was her sibling. The moment he got to know that the infant was her own child he was baffled by the reality as the little girl was only in her early teens, and he was heartbroken. On that day onwards, he dedicated his life towards finding the causes for this calamity. Over the course of the last 12 years, he has done more than 10 researches and has come to a realization with concrete evidence that children dropping out from schools and their parents migrating abroad in search of jobs are two of the main causes for this misfortune. Today he is on an ambitious journey to find a sustainable solution to completely eradicate this social problem.
This is Kisho Kumar from Hatton, founder of Saban Naturals, and this is his story of how he became an independent researcher and a social entrepreneur seeking for sustainable solutions to create a better world and a better future for the children of the plantation sector in the emerald isle of Sri Lanka.
S. M. S. Hassan
Al – Moulavi Sameen Mohammed Saheeb Hasan (Sharqi) is a 25 years old young and energetic personality working as an ICT – Instructor at Yathama International School – Sri Lanka, after completing his degree of BSc (Hons) in Cyber and Computer Security, offered by the University of Gloucestershire – UK.
He is a very energetic and multi-tasking personality with more skills in various fields like ICT, Language Training and Translating (English, Tamil, Arabic, and Sinhalese), Career Guidance, Athletics and Sports. He has gained a lot of academic (HND – IT, DCT, Dip in English, Dip in Sinhalese, Dip in Arabic and Al – Moulavi Al – Alim) and professional (CWNE, CCNA, MCSA, CEH) certifications and achievements (Fully paid scholarship for Egypt Al- Azhar University – Cairo, 1st Place in Shotput and 2nd Place in Discus Throw). In addition, he is also a sportsperson with sound skills in playing Cricket, Football, Volleyball and Badminton.
Hasan is highly interested in social services with the intention of ensuring and making the world a better place for all living beings, not only humans but nature too.
Apart from his job, currently, he is empowering youth within his society and guiding them on the right path to be successful and to make them worthy to themselves as well as to the society.
Due to his interest in empowering his society, he joined the UNDP – HackaDev programme in 2019 as a young person with innovative solution with a project for his society’s development that can help to attain the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and received the opportunity to take part in one of the HackaDev Social Innovation Camps.
As he learnt a lot of tools to serve the society emphatically through HackaDav Social Innovation Camp, he started working with UNDP HackaDev programme to serve his society and also got selected as a HackaDev Ambassadors to serve his community in various areas in the future. Hasan is really proud to be a HackaDev Ambassador to support the other young people and to lead them towards Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship.
Shafi Rizvi
Muhammed Shafi, a 23-year-old tech enthusiast is a third-year undergraduate pursuing the B.Sc. (Hons) in Information Technology degree at the University of Moratuwa and also follows CIMA parallelly. A product of Trinity College Kandy, Shafi has excelled in academics as well as in extracurricular activities.
He represented Sri Lanka in martial arts proving himself as a versatile youngster. Psychology and entrepreneurship have always been two fields of interest for Shafi where he has even made it a practice to inculcate psychology to his day to day activities. Shafi’s latest focus has been in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) where he has planned to pursue his future career. He believes in integrating two of his interests, AI and psychology which are two trending topics to build innovative solutions and to share his knowledge on these two topics with youngsters.
A HackaDev ambassador who can communicate fluently in three languages, Shafi expects to convey the message of entrepreneurship and guide youngsters on how to use technology to make their solutions more effective.
Sudath Amarasinghe
Sudath Channa Priyadarshana is a 26 years old final year student at South Eastern University of Sri Lanka and currently taking up a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. As a civil engineering student, he has the capability to perform effectively in different sections such as accounting, sales, marketing and creative services. During his undergraduate period, he participated in the HackaDev National Youth Social Innovation Challenge and got the opportunity to be part of the HackaDev Ambassadors Programme by UNDP Sri Lanka.
He performed well in his G.C.E. Ordinary Levels and took his G.C.E. Advanced Levels in Mathematics stream. Sudath has been engaged in many more activities, such as being a member of student union society, leadership programmes, national cadet corps and the school sports club. Also he has been able to come up with a platform named ‘The Guider & Helper‘ to support the students who are willing to learn and facing issues of getting proper facilities and also encouraging online based learning in Sri Lanka.
He believes his greatest reward is to develop and maintain long term professional relationships with individuals of different backgrounds. At his university he is also playing a major role in career guidance programmes and performs well in his academic activities.
With the support and experience and UNDP along with his strengths and capabilities, Sudath is willing to empower the society to achieve sustainable goals.
Thiyasha Karunaratne
Thiyasha Karunaratne, a 21-year-old who is currently a 3rd year nursing student at IIHS (International Institute of Health Sciences) following her passion to become a nurse. Thiyasha believes that often change starts from the smallest deeds and pursuing the career as a nurse is a set out plan for changing the concept of nursing worldwide. She has currently presented four researches at college forums and is continuing to work towards more research.
Thiyasha is a work driven individual who works best under pressure. She has helped in organizing many events and functions in the past few years and knows the role of leadership and the responsibilities it withholds. Thiyasha finished her primary education at Lyceum International School Wattala and was a passionate basketball player during her school years.
Thiyasha is a nurse in the making who is going to reach incredible heights and goals in making nursing a valuable and recognizable profession. She is an all-rounder who lives with driven passion for her work.
Vimukthi Kumara
Vimukthi Kumara is currently serving as a Youth Services Officer of the Madurawala Divisional Secretary in Kalutara district, Sri Lanka, attached to the National Youth Services Council of Sri Lanka. In relation to his role as a Youth Services Officer, annual registration and reorganization of youth clubs of Sri Lankan Youth Club Federation is also one the priorities of his responsible activities. Simultaneously, he manages and organizes the various programs which have been organized by the National Youth Service Council to develop the knowledge, attitudes and capabilities of the young generation.
Moreover, he has served in the Youth Services Council since 2017 and he has previously gained experience in youth development by participating in national and international youth programs as a youth club member. In addition, he is a lecturer on “Leadership & Attitude Development” in government and non- government organizations.
Meanwhile, Vimukthi has joined the HackaDev; National Youth Social Innovation Challenge programme to become social entrepreneurs through contributing to solve development challenges in the country. His mission is to build up a responsible young generation and develop the youth capacity who engage with social development. Along with that objective, he contributes as a HackaDev Ambassador with his experiences, knowledge, attitudes, capabilities and his career connections. He is pursuing the Bachelor of Arts external degree at University of Kelaniya and a Higher Diploma in Youth Development at the Open University of Sri Lanka.
Vimukthi is confident that his educational capabilities, practical knowledge and innovative ideas will strengthen his ambassador role as well. As a sportsperson he is a good team player of cricket and badminton and also fond of playing outdoor games as well.
Viththyakaran Nadarajah
Viththiyakaran Nadarajah is a community builder and full stack developer with more than two years of experience. He is pursuing Bachelor of Technology in Software Technology at University of Vocational Technology, Rathmalana. He is passionate about engaging with underprivileged and vulnerable communities who are students and unemployed.
He is focusing on building sustainable communities by creating individuals who have the capabilities to be a citizen who in his/her own capacity can contribute to the wellbeing of the community. That’s why he co-founded the organization Sagacious Youth Lead Consortium to support communities.
He had attained Bronze Award at the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, Sri Lanka and Won First Place in Stockholm Junior Water Prize Competition National Certificate for Innovation. He is successfully running social enterprises Batticaloa 360 and Aqua magic Initiatives. Which are to promote local products and combat climate change.
As a HackaDev Ambassador he is getting more capability and network to make a contribution to his community.
Yasiru Geevinda
Yasiru Geevinda is a 23 years old passionate young entrepreneur who is currently reading for his B.Sc. Hons (Special) degree in Information Systems at the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. Yasiru is one of the co-founders and head of development at the startup called “GovMetrics” which provides a digital platform to improve democracy in the country.
Yasiru is passionate about solving real-world problems through his learnings. He really likes to make an impact on society through technology. He loves to explore with emerging areas of information technology such as machine learning, augmented reality and the Internet of Things. His obvious enthusiasm for software development helps him to participate in a number of inter-university hackathons in Sri Lanka and become a finalist at some of them including HackX ’18 and CodeSprint 4.0. He was lucky enough to be a part of a team that received the incubation support at the “HackaDev” National Youth Social Innovation Challenge 2018.
Volunteering is one of the special parts of Yasiru’s life. He is working with the not-for-profit organization, the “STEMUp Education Foundation” and he travels all around the island with the team to fill the gaps of technical and soft skills of young college students.
As a HackaDev AAmbassador Yasiru hopes to empower Sri Lanka’s youth with social-innovation and technopreneurial skills to make their innovative ideas come true. He hopes to share his experiences, technical and non-technical knowledge, to help them to fine-tune their ideas for making the world a better place for future generations.
No Results Found