Sri Lanka

Samitha Sugathimala, works as the Programme Director at Foundation for Innovative Social Development. She is a trainer, advocate and a consultant on Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) and gender related development issues including working on men and masculinities for gender justice.

She holds a degree in Sociology from the University of Colombo and had done her post graduate studies in counselling and psychosocial work. Samitha has over 18 years’ experience working on the community based approaches for Prevention of SGBV and working with men and boys in Sri Lanka. She had also contributed to drafting and implementation of National action plan on addressing SGBV in Sri Lanka (2016-2020) She is the National coordinator for the ‘Men Engage Alliance Sri Lanka’ since 2018 and is the regional coordinator for Men Engage South Asia since 2020. Samitha acts as the advisor to the FISD National Campaign- Be the Change- on engaging men and boys for gender justice and has developed tools and educational materials on transforming patriarchal masculinities.