UNFPA Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan Fashion Brand Label Amilani Perera embarked on a partnership starting in 2020 to address the issue of violence against women and girls through fashion and the apparel industry. The apparel industry sees a large portion of women engaged from designing, producing to modeling amongst many other aspects.
UNFPA introduced Amilani Perera to the Women’s Development Center (WDC), which runs shelters and safe homes for survivors of violence in Kandy. Through the partnership, Amilani Perera worked with survivors of violence in product development in addition to mentoring programmes that enhanced design skills. Leading from this partnership, UNFPA collaborated with Colombo Fashion Week 2021 to reach out to more people on the issue of gender-based violence, with a special focus on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV).
In 2023, Amilani Perera’s Colombo Fashion Week showcase highlighted the UNFPA Bodyright Campaign, which focused on highlighting the impact of technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
