Sri Lanka work wins student 'Asian Nobel Prize'

AN Edinburgh student has been awarded what is described as the "Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize" for his work in Sri Lanka.

International health PhD student Ananda Galappatti has been awarded this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award for emergent leadership for his work with victims of war and tsunami in Sri Lanka.

Originally from Sri Lanka, the 34-year-old studies on a joint PhD programme run by Queen Margaret University and Edinburgh University.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award, which is considered to be Asia's premier prize, recognises Mr Galappatti's spirited personal commitment to bring effective psychosocial services to war trauma and natural disaster victims in Sri Lanka.

After studying psychology at Cambridge University, he returned to Sri Lanka in 1996 and set up the War Trauma Psychosocial Support Programme. Following the tsunami, Mr Galappatti founded a network of organisations and individuals to coordinate psychosocial services.