About Milinda

Born in a little village in Kurunegala, Milinda’s dream of changing the world started with himself, when he decided at age 8 that the only way to redefine his circumstances was through education. Today, Milinda is proud to be “that boy from Werella” who has travelled to over 30 countries around the world, attended 3 UN General Assemblies, founded the South Asia Regional Youth Network for the International Planned Parenthood Federation, co-chaired the World Conference on Youth, and run for the Mayor of Colombo.

With over 12 years of experience working in the fields of sexual and reproductive health, international development, youth affairs, and creative innovation, Milinda is a passionate advocate of the power of young people. He strongly believes in improving youth participation in politics, and engaging young people in the conversations and decisions that matter.

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Politics

Milinda is a young politician representing the Sri Lanka People’s Front (Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna). While Milinda’s first foray into organised politics came with his campaign for the Colombo Municipal Council in February 2018, his need to be a change maker emerged many years ago, during his childhood growing up in the village of Werella in Kurunegala.
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Vision

Milinda’s political vision was driven by the need to give life to the Colombo he dreamt of as a young boy – a Colombo that is a clean, green, resilient haven, home to people of any age, race,or religion. A city where honest, hardworking Sri Lankans could realise their dreams and achieve their full potential while contributing positively to our country.
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Writing

Milinda began writing as his wide sphere of experiences allowed him to draw parallels between different subjects, incidents, and people. He knew the written word could be a powerful tool of engagement and an effective method of capturing a wide audience, who had very clear opinions and passionate responses to the subjects that he would write about.
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Public Service

Milinda’s experience in public service began in 2005 in the field of sexual and reproductive health. Since then, he has amassed a wealth of international experience while working and travelling in over 30 countries, across five continents, engaging with governments, industry, and non-profits, including 8 UN High Level Meetings and three UN General Assemblies.
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Writing

Having identified the written word as a powerful tool to engage and capture the consciousness of an audience, Milinda began writing about politics, the economy, current affairs, film, literature, art – anything that would incite a response within him, which he correctly predicted would also provoke such a response from his readers.

At its heart, his first book, අයිතිකාරයෝ භාර නොගත් ලියුම් සීයක් (One Hundred Misplaced Letters), is a representation of his lifelong passion for politics. But it also goes beyond, as it combines his need of articulating a clear political ideology and his passion for sharing his opinions with a wider audience, in the hope of engaging them in meaningful conversation about anything and everything that he considers significant in the world.

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