Welcome to Part 1 of our August 2025 Inspirational Interview with Alia Whitney-Johnson, Founder and CEO of Emerge Lanka in Sri Lanka.
Alia Whitney-Johnson is a social entrepreneur with 20 years of experience working with children who’ve survived trauma, abuse, and exploitation. She founded Emerge Global and Emerge Lanka Foundation to support teen survivors of sexual abuse in healing, becoming self-sufficient, and leading change. Alia has worked across Asia, Latin America, and the US, centring deep listening, youth leadership, and systemic transformation. She holds degrees from MIT and Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.
Part 2 of Alia’s interview will be published 4 August, 2025.
All photos are courtesy of Emerge Lanka.
- How and why did you join the movement to end violence against women (VAW)?
Twenty years ago, I met an 11-year-old girl in Sri Lanka who had survived abuse. We didn’t speak the same language, so we connected over a shared bag of beads, using our hands and creativity to make meaning when words couldn’t. That moment planted the seed for Emerge. I didn’t start with a plan, funding, or answers—just love, listening, and the desire to witness.
Since then, I’ve walked alongside over 2,000 teen survivors across continents. I’ve learned that healing begins with choice, community, and dignity. We are all more than our darkest moments. Healing isn’t linear. Neither is leadership. That 11-year-old went on to save thousands of dollars, start a business, and build a home. I fell in love with this work by witnessing her power. I’ve seen again and again: when we build with survivors and let love lead, transformation becomes possible.
2. Emerge works with girls who have survived abuse, exploitation, and extreme childhood trauma and have had the courage to speak out, stand up for their beliefs, and protect others. Could you give us an overview of Emerge’s approach to combatting VAW in Sri Lanka and how this has developed since it was founded?
Emerge was founded in 2005 with the belief that survivors of child sexual abuse in Sri Lanka who came forward deserved to be wrapped with healing and support. Recognising the unique challenges survivors face—long court delays, institutionalisation, and social stigma—Emerge developed a holistic, trauma-sensitive model to meet their needs. Over the past 20 years, the organisation has grown from a volunteer-led initiative based in shelters—where jewelry-making was used as a tool for healing, financial literacy, and building economic capital—into a comprehensive ecosystem that includes mental health services, reproductive health education, critical life skills, experiential reintegration programming and job/educational placement support, lifelong alumni support, and systems-level advocacy. Grounded in partnership with survivors, Emerge not only supports their healing journey but also sees survivors as essential to drive cultural and systemic change.
3. Could you tell us about the services, programmes, and initiatives that Emerge runs to make a difference in the lives of teenaged Sri Lankan girls who are survivors of VAW?
Emerge Lanka supports survivors through a four-pronged approach:
- Shelter-based programmes: In partnership with Sri Lanka’s Department of Probation and Child Care Services, we offer trauma-sensitive programming in government shelters—focusing on mental health, life skills, and sexual and reproductive health to build resilience and agency.
- Reintegration: At 18, participants can join our Centre for Reintegration, a three-and-a-half-month residential programme that provides transitional housing, therapy, education, and career coaching, followed by community-based support.
- Alumni Network: Graduates join a lifelong community with access to scholarships, crisis support, and mentorship.
- Systems Change: Survivor experiences shape our training for police, social workers, and journalists, and guide our advocacy to build a justice system where every survivor can heal and thrive.
4. What are some of the particular challenges that Emerge has faced and continues to face when helping teen survivors and tackling VAW in Sri Lanka?
Emerge works within a complex landscape of challenges. At a societal level, deep-rooted stigma surrounds survivors of abuse. There’s often resistance to acknowledging lived experience as valid knowledge, and a cultural norm that discourages speaking out about harm—especially when it occurs within the family.
At an individual level, every survivor’s path is different. Some girls have never attended school, others live with learning disabilities, and all are navigating the effects of trauma. Designing truly individualised support takes care and adaptability.
Finally, sustaining our team is an ongoing challenge. Our staff give incredibly generously of their time, energy, and hearts, and this work is emotionally demanding. We are continually learning how to build a culture that not only supports participants, but sustains the healers, too. Because transforming lives requires not just resilience—but community, care, and systems that honour everyone’s humanity.
5.Over the years, what sort of impact has Emerge’s work had on stopping VAW in Sri Lanka?
Since 2005, Emerge has supported over 1700 survivors with remarkable results. In 2024, 100% of graduates of the Emerge Centre were successfully placed in jobs or educational placements; 100% showed post-traumatic growth; 75% expressed reduced trauma symptoms; 100% developed basic computer literacy; 88% could deposit and withdraw money comfortably; and 100% felt empowered to choose and explain contraceptive methods to others.
In our 2024/25 shelter-based programmes, participants moved from an average score of 1.7 to 5.3 on a 6-point self-assessment scale—rising from little to no prior knowledge to feeling confident in their understanding, with many ready to share what they learned with others—across both life skills and reproductive health.
But beyond statistics, we see profound transformation. Girls who were unwilling to speak began to speak again. Alumni have started businesses, built homes, and mentored other participants at Emerge. One graduate now rents rooms out to other Emerge alumni, creating a beautiful cycle of survivor-led empowerment.
This is the impact of ending violence—not only stopping harm, but building futures grounded in dignity, healing, and possibility.
