YWPA Awards:
Fo r D a s u n i D i n i t h i k a Jayawickrama, little did she know when singing, dancing, compeering and acting on stage at the school’s talent show as head prefect, that it would be a catalyst for her succeeding as an international winner in the Young Women in Public Affairs (YWPA) Awards 2018.
YWPA Awards is one of the service programmes of the Zonta International Foundation, dedicated to empower women while working towards gender equality by building a just world for women and girls. Each year, the award recognizes young girls from all around the world, between the age of 16-19 who demonstrate superior leadership skills, commitment to public services and civil causes to create a difference in their communities through voluntary services.
This year, Zonta Clubs I- IV of Colombo joined hands and called up applications in January for YWPA Awards 2018. A special committee of judges reviewed the applications received from the contestants of Musaeus College, Sujatha Vidyalaya, Bishop’s College, Gateway
C o l l e g e, Colombo International School and Asian International School.
The four applications were submitted to the Zonta International district evaluation committee.
District 25 comprises of
Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Nepal, where each country submitted their applicants. Dasuni was the winner of District 25 and given the opportunity to be selected to the Zonta International’s YWPA committee, as the committee reviewed the 32 awardees from the 32 districts worldwide and selected the ten most outstanding applicants as the international awardees for 2018.
Dasuni, the school captain for 2016/ 17 of Museaus College, Colombo, became the district and one of the YWPA international winners. Dasuni had 55 senior and 36 junior prefects under her wing. As a part of the annual community service project anchored by the prefects’ guild, in Dasuni’s year, she organized a prefects’ talent show, identifying the unique talents of