Vositha Wijenayake is a teacher, a student, an activist and a legal researcher. Having been a lecturer of French at the universities of Kelaniya and  of Jayawardenapura, she is currently reading for her LLM in Public International law and specialises in human rights and international environmental law.

As a climate activist, she has been following the climate change negotiations since the year 2009 and has been the interim focal point for the youth NGOs within the UN process at  the UNFCCC negotiations in Bangkok 2011 . Her role as the Executive Coordinator for Sri Lankan Youth Climate Action Network (SLYCAN) has provided her the outlet to function as a key player in the youth movement on climate change, locally as well as internationally.

She believes that where ever it be in the world, most issues of people are very similar, and that awareness and reaching out is a key element in finding common solutions. She brings this belief to her with Grassrooted and will focus on the rights of people belonging to lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender communities.

Vositha has an LLB from University of London, and a BA in French, English and Psychology, from the University of Keleniya.

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Milinda Rajapaksha was appointed to the Youth Technical Advisory Panel of the Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka in 2003. Since then he has developed into a passionate advocate for sexual and reproductive rights of young people across the region.

Milinda worked for two years with the UNDP Regional Centre when it was based in Colombo with the HIV and Human Development Team. Today he is employed as the Youth Coordinator for IPPF South Asia Region. His work involves a rights based approach to sexual and reproductive health in Afghanistan, Maldives, Iran, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Also he serves for Advisory Committee of Youth LEAD, A network of Young Key Affected People in Asia-Pacific.

Milinda has also worked as a consultant to PANOS South Asia in 2009 and 2010 to promote Sexual and Reproductive Rights and the Rights of HIV Positive people with journalists in Sri Lanka and is a member of Regional Oral Testimony Trainers for PANOS South Asia.

He has a B.A in Business Management & Finance from Wayamba University, Sri Lanka and has a Fellowship with the University of Miami USA in Development Communication.

Now he is working closely with Civil Organizations in the region for Universal Access review process, specially as a member of the International Advisory Committee.

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Gayatri Natrajan’s exposure to HIV, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and Gender first came when she was appointed the Wake Up Pune Campaign Coordinator from 2007 to 2009. Her theatre training and background helped her to develop theatre based HIV interventions for young people in India. Gayatri is now a Trustee of The Grassrooted Trust, and has used her analytic skills to become a competent data analyst using SPSS and Epi-Info software.  She contributes to the design and development of research goals and methodology, and her projects have included the People Living with HIV Stigma Index, The HIV Rapid Situation Assessment among Maritime Workers in Sri Lanka and more recently, the LGBT Stigma Index.

Gayatri has an LLB from ILS Law College in India, and while she is not currently qualified to practice law in Sri Lanka, she brings her legal expertise to issues of advocacy and policy that we deal with.

Her provocative prose has helped in making her Wednesday Column one of the popularly read posts on grassrooted.

Gayatri also has a BA in Economics and a Masters in English Literature from the University of Pune.

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Ira Madan first volunteered with Sahara Centre for Residential Care and Rehabilitation in New Delhi in 2001. Sahara is a leading NGO with a national presence in India working in the field of Drug use and HIV. Her work with Sahara as a volunteer included counseling on HIV and drug use; setting up the Sahara Transgender Community project in Old Delhi; and initiating ‘Friends of Sahara’ a consortium that provided economic and psycho-social support for HIV positive people. Her commitment and passion for HIV and Drug Use led to employment with Sahara where she excelled on research projects including the Rapid Situation Assessment in Thane, Mumbai to measure the HIV awareness levels in three target communities of the district (2003); a community based research study in Jehangirpuri, New Delhi to assess the strengths, beliefs, and knowledge in relation to HIV and AIDS in collaboration with Duke University (2003); the Indian component of the study ‘The Structural Determinants of Drug Use among Young People’ a four country research project for Asian Harm Reduction Network (AHRN) (2003-2004); development of research instruments and protocol for the needs assessment of street girl children in Jama Masjid, New Delhi (2004); a tobacco alternate substance study by Dalmia Centre for Research and Development to determine the efficacy, acceptance and experience of alternate herbal substance with users in drug treatment centres in and around New Delhi (2004).

In 2005 Ira was appointed the Research Coordinator for Sahara, where she headed the project ‘Positive Outcomes for Orphans’ a four year five country study on the needs of orphans related to HIV, where she was based in Nagaland, India until 2010. During this period Ira also coordinated a Population Council NY/DFID/Sahara research study on sexual behaviour and networks of injecting drug users and the Dalmia Bio-Technology/Sahara clinical study on DCBT 8902 on Hepatitis C.

In addition Ira was the external evaluator of the targeted interventions implemented by the Nagaland State AIDS Control Society (2006); Research Consultant for Sharan on ‘Mapping of High Risk Groups and Migrants’ under NACP III in the state of Nagaland (2008); DFID Futures Group TAST consultant for NACO ‘Mid Term Review on Innovations (IDU/MSM/TG) and IEC of Nagaland State AIDS Control Society (2009); Research Consultant for Asian Consortium on Drug Use, HIV and AIDS and Poverty of seven country assessment on involuntary drug treatment (2010).

Ira’s experience and her people skills allows for her to ensure participation of all stakeholders in the design and development of research goals, designing of research tools and also training researchers to implement projects in Asia including skills on SPSS, EZ Text and Epi-Info. Ira’s personal goal is to reduce the gap between research and practice, ensuring that communities and HIV and drug user initiatives have access to the research they need to implement effective programmes at the grassroots.

Ira has an M.A in Sociology from Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India and a B.A in History (Hons.) from theUniversity of Delhi, India.

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Based in Pune, India since 2005, Paul has several years’ experience volunteering with the grassroots NGO Deep Griha Society, as well as the Wake Up Pune HIV awareness campaign.

Paul’s focus is primarily in technology and media. Recent projects include several websites and portals, including grassrooted.net.

In May 2011 Paul started planetofthedata.com, a site focused on data visualizations, maps and infographics – often with a social development focus. Paul has also developed the first interactive map visualizing data from the 2011 India Census, accompanied by an associated Facebook application.

Working with Grassrooted, Paul aims to help grassroots development organizations to maximize the benefits of online media and social networking.

Aside from online projects, Paul  also prepares logos, posters, brochures and other related material. In late 2010 he prepared the layout and graphic design for the People Living With HIV Stigma Index: Sri Lanka report (written and researched by Grassrooted Development Consultants for the National Partnership including UNAIDS, Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka and the National STD/AIDS Control programme and the positive networks).

Academically, Paul has a background in Political Science (University of Newcastle, UK) and Journalism (University of Pune, India).

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Roshan De Silva has been an activist for gay, bi-sexual and the transgender communities for almost ten years.  In 2009, following the first national consultation on men who have sex with men in Sri Lanka, Roshan has been actively involved in the national HIV response in Sri Lanka. This included presenting a paper on the vulnerability of male sex workers at the recently concluded ICAAP10 in South Korea.

He is also a successful businessman, running his own advertising firm in Colombo. His creative skills have helped us develop HIV related Behaviour Change Communication material and methodologies for UNFPA and ILO, including a HIV care and support manual for people living with HIV. His focus with Grassrooted remains the health of all, especially HIV prevention among key affected populations in Sri Lanka.

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Paba Deshapriya has been a volunteer with the Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka since 2006. A passionate young advocate and activist, she has been chairperson of the Youth Technical Advisory Committee from 2008 onwards.  She is also a member of the IPPF South Asia Region Governing Council.

Paba is an effective communicator in both English and Sinhala, and conducts workshops on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and gender.  She is also an excellent written translator, and is working on developing a pragmatic Sinhala vocabulary for the issues we deal with, a vocabulary that would move discussions around sex and sexuality beyond concerns of profanity and provocation.

Paba has a BA in Political Science from the University of Colombo, and is currently following her LLB from the University of London.

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Hans Billimoria first worked with the grassroots development NGO, Deep Griha Society (DGS) in Pune, India as a volunteer in 1999. He was later Programme Manager for all DGS HIV & AIDS interventions. These included Care and Support for HIV Positive People in three urban slum communities; Prevention and Awareness programmes with varied target groups in Pune including the corporate sector, universities and colleges, schools, urban slum youth and women’s groups. He was also a founding member of the Pune City Action Plan for Injecting Drug Users.

He has always believed in innovative approaches to HIV prevention and awareness; Condom Cricket and Disruptive Theatre, which won an MTV Staying Alive Award in 2009, have been a couple of effective innovations he worked on with the Wake Up Pune campaign.

In Sri Lanka and through The Grassrooted Trust, together with the passionate team, he looks forward to helping change the misconceptions people have towards HIV, those who live with it, and other key affected populations that are ,marginalized in Sri Lanka, including people who use drugs. His main areas of interest currently are Positive Living; Sexuality & Religion; and a community response to drug use.

Hans has a BA in Philosophy & Psychology from Madras Christian College, University of Madras, India and an M.Phil in Philosophy from the University of Dundee, Scotland.