Sara Pathirana

Sara has been engaged in the media sector for over ten years. She first stepped foot into the field of journalism, beginning with the Business Desk of the Ceylon Daily News, Lake House in late 2012. After working there for two and a half years, she continued to work as a freelance writer and has provided content for various news websites and magazines, both locally and globally. Having been trained as a mobile journalist, Sara then joined the Centre for Media and Information Literacy (CMIL) in 2020 on project-basis as Program Officer, where she worked closely with youth and citizens in coordinating CMIL’s media and information literacy-related programs. As a Mobile Journalism Fellow, she was part of a training that was conducted by the MediaCorp Fellowship Program through the Sri Lanka Development Journalists’ Forum (SDJF), an initiative that aims to uplift young storytellers and journalists to seek underreported stories from various communities across the country and helping to promote peace and reconciliation. She holds an Executive Master’s in Mass Communication from Asia e University, Malaysia. She enjoys voluntary work and one of her most challenging engagements was as part of a team of professional crisis communications experts from reputed media and PR agencies, where she provided voluntary assistance through content writing, social media content and strategic support to the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) in communicating their message to the public. This instigation was in relation to the recent MV X-Press Pearl ship fire incident that took place off the coast of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She currently provides support as a Consultant and Program Officer for Arrow Aid, a non-profit organisation that focuses on uplifting people from marginalised communities in Sri Lanka through the means of media literacy, youth and women empowerment programs and other similar activities through fundraising. Sara is also a trainer in Digital Security with special emphasis on educating young girls and women on how to stay safe online – part of the Internews Safe Sisters Initiative. Sara works full-time as a Content Development Manager for a UK-founded web development company called Asset Digital.