Ms. Menuri Sachintha Kodikara is a 16 years old activist from Sri Lanka, the first-ever Glocal Teen Hero Sri Lanka Awardee for 2020. She has been working as a social activist and aims to pursue sustainable development goals. She was awarded the high international award of appreciation ‘Volunteer Service Leader’ by Sri Lanka United Nations Friendship Organization.
Apart from that; She has also been selected for the 1st International SDG action camp. She is an Asian and Commonwealth bronze medalist, a National member of the World’s first SDG Children’s Parliament. She won 3 golds in the West Asian Championship and got the title of ‘WOMAN FIDE MASTER’ in 2016 by the World Chess Federation.
Ms. Menuri also has a record of 6 High International Awards of Appreciation for working towards SDGs. Currently, She is working for the SDGCPSL (Sustainable Development Goals Children’s Parliament of Sri Lanka) with future short-term and long-term projects which helps with Goal 1 and Goal 4. She was able to participate in reputed tournaments in Asia and was selected for international level tournaments held in countries like Thailand, Serbia, UAE, Taiwan, and Singapore. She also plays Chess and is the youngest Chess winner of Sri Lanka.
During this pandemic; she arranged donations from various people and distributed them amongst the needy people. She wanted to be more productive, so she had also participated in a program arranged by the United Nations. Additionally, Menuri started a children’s club in an undeveloped area in her Country. In the children club, there are around 81 children. She has given counseling and provided them with books and many other stationary they needed for their school. She also believes in encouraging the youth, she wishes to visit different villages of her country and identify the talent and help them in her way so that the poor children get opportunities and showcase their talent. Furthermore, she has planned to come up with her own YouTube channel to encourage her fellow countrymen to reduce the use of plastics.
Menuri has always been enthusiastic and actively working in the field of social sectors to find herself. She has inspired millions of teenagers to believe in action and act for the betterment of society. She dreams of doing something big, something positive change that can make a huge impact on society or the nation.
