Sri Lankan youth leaders, Rakitha Malewana and Senel Wanniarachchi, who received an exceptional honour to win the Queen’s Young Leader Award, under the Queen’s Young Leaders programme, called on President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat, yesterday(01).

Malewana and Wanniarachchi collected their awards from Queen Elizabeth, in London, recently. 

The President commended the honour and glory they brought brought to the motherland by winning this award and extended his best wishes for all their future endeavors.

The Queen’s Young Leader Award recognizes and celebrates exceptionally talented people aged between 18 and 29, who take lead in their communities and use their skills to transform lives, across the Commonwealth. 

Every year, 60 young leaders from the Commonwealth countries, get selected to receive awards ceremony held at the Buckingham Palace.

Senel Wanniarachchi received this award for his engagements in organizing training programs to increase women’s representation in politics and for using social media to educate and empower the youth and women. He was also involved in educating them on gender equity, civil and political rights.

Wanniarachchi was the Youth Representative of United Nations in Sri Lanka in 2014. He completed a Special Degree in International Relations at the University of Colombo.

Rakhitha Malevana was awarded by the Queen for invention of a drug for HIV affected people.

He is an external researcher at the Medical Research Institution, Colombo and the University of Colombo. He invented a vaccine for HIV during his school days at Nalanda College.