Buddhini Withana (BSc (Hons) (Warwick), MSc (Edin))

Thesis title: Childhood, Urban Poor & Violence in Sri Lanka: An Ethnographic Inquiry

Biography

Background

Buddhini Withana is a third year PhD student by distance. Her research interests include culturally occurring processes of social and emotional development of children, how social and emotional competencies are developed in specific cultural settings, socialization of children in urban poor communities and how children develop resilience to violence. Her research is based in Sri Lanka.

Buddhini holds a Master's Degree in Childhood Studies from the University of Edinburgh, and a Bachelor's Degree in Management Sciences from the University of Warwick. She is also a NCFE UK certified leading edge child protection practitioner with over 15 years of experience in child protection and child rights work in Sri Lanka. She is currently the Senior Technical Advisor – Child Protection and Child Rights in Business at Save the Children Sri Lanka. She serves as Save the Children’s principal technical advisor to the government of Sri Lanka. Her work has mainly focused on advocating for and providing technical expertise for improving national governance measures for child protection, mental health and psychosocial support and child rights, technically guiding direct interventions into violence against children at national, regional and community levels, and working with international fora to strengthen global child protection measures through shared learning and collaboration. 

Qualifications

MSc in Childhood Studies - University of Edinburgh, 2006

BSc (Hons) in Management Sciences - University of Warwick, 2005

Leading Edge Child Protection Practitioner Accreditation - NCFE UK & Save the Children, 2022

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