Description:

Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne is Gen. Secretary of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, Sri Lanka’s largest non-governmental grassroots development organization. He developed many innovative programs, including delivering services for internally displaced persons and a novel program to address the psycho-social effects amongst children affected by war using a community based, non-medicalized approach to healing, that helped thousands of children to recover from the trauma of war.

After the Tsunami disaster in 2004, he was responsible for the overall coordination of the Sarvodaya’s emergency response and later the entire reconstruction program, one of the largest Tsunami recovery programs in the country.

Dr. Ariyaratne has also been a founding member and the Coordinator of the People’s Health Movement Sri Lanka, a network of grassroots health organizations working on advocacy related to health rights, including rights of persons living with HIV/AIDS, commercial sex workers, national drug policy, anti-tobacco policy and other contemporary health issues. He has also been involved extensively in civil society peace, interfaith and reconciliation initiatives. He has extensive experience working with governmental bodies, UN agencies, multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, national and international non-governmental organizations as well as the private sector in matters related to development.

A past President of the College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka, he has extensive teaching and research experience in Community Medicine and has contributed to numerous peer reviewed publications and books. He is a Board Certified Specialist in Community Medicine.

Co-sponsored by Religious Studies, International Program Development (IPD), and Equality Development and Globalization Studies (EDGS)