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WiLAT Chairperson Gayani De Alwis welcoming participants for the third WiLAT event for the year said: “The WiLAT forum in Sri Lanka was formed in 2013 by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Sri Lanka to encourage the representation of women in the transport and logistics industry and to address the wide gender imbalance.”
“WiLAT Sri Lanka creates awareness on career opportunities, increases access to information and supports continuous professional development. The forum also offers networking opportunities to share industry best practice as well as training and mentoring opportunities. The latest initiative of WiLAT, ‘Ignite’ is a planned mentoring program where both mentors and those who wish to be mentored, we call mentees, are chosen from a list and matched through a formal procedure according to their career paths or interests,” she added.
De Alwis also mentioned that the number of mentees have been restricted to 40 slots on a first come first serve basis.
WiLAT Mentors
Personal development relationship
“It’s a personal development relationship in which a more experienced or knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. It’s a powerful development and empowerment tool for individuals to progress in their careers. The ‘Ignite’ mentoring program fits perfectly into the WiLAT mission, which is to provide a forum for women engaged in the industry to network and create opportunities for career advancement and empower them to become leading professionals,” the WiLAT Chairperson added. 
Chief Guest at the event was Dr. Dorothy Chan, who is the Deputy Director of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) School of Professional and Continuing Education, and Head of Centre for Logistics and Transport. She is also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), which she also chaired in 1989. She is now the CILT International President and assumed the role of President in 2013 for two years.
Dr. Chan started off by describing the objectives of WiLAT and the main figures behind this institute. “Our global mission is simple. It is to encourage your [women’s] participation, not only here but in all parts of the world and together bring upon their career development. Starting with eight groups in June 2013, we now have 15 WiLATs globally. It’s an inclusive not exclusive group. The countries where WiLAT is formed would be Gambia, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Middle East, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Following the global launching, WiLAT has set up a structure for communication,” she said.
She said that WiLAT comes together on an annual basis to report annual events and discuss future plans. In June this year WiLAT met in Malacca and discussed how and why women leaders should be made more visible to act as inspiration and role models.
“Here today, it’s a pleasant surprise that WiLAT Sri Lanka is the first to launch the Mentoring program,” she emphasised.
Education and diversity
Explaining the matters of education and diversity in this context she said: “Development organisations have concluded that educating women and providing them with access to jobs and finance are critical steps in elevating their potential. On the other hand research shows that companies with a higher percentage of women on the board achieve higher financial results. In many countries associations have been formed in industry levels to specifically look into the status of women and discuss measures to improve the numbers at senior management level. Individual companies and many countries have introduced diversity programs of different degrees of sophistication.”
Adding to the discussion, she said: “There is no doubt that logistics and transport is a male dominated industry. In Hong Kong women are accountable for just 22% of those employed in the logistic and transport sector, this figure appear to be low compared by Western benchmark, in Canada this figure is 39% and in Australia 24%.”
Further elaborating on this point, she showed that the main reason for the low participation of women in Logistics and Transport is the perception that it is not a very feminine industry and one dominated by men alone. There is also a perception that the male dominance in this industry make it difficult for women to advance. Further the lack of policies to help women in career, while they try to juggle the family and career is a huge challenge. However, the advancement of technology has made it easier for women to take on previously male dominated job, she explained.
“I believe that once women learn more about the opportunities in supply chain and transport, the international nature of our business, fast paced capacity and the constant change, they will look at the career in a different way and will be attracted to pursue a meaningful career in this field,” she asserted.
Dr. Dorothy Chan concluded her speech by suggesting that if to attract women to join the industry it’s important to make sure women know the opportunities available, have role models to show the way and have mentors to guide.
The event included a short play presented by a group of talented individuals from CINEC, who effectively enacted issues women grapple with in the work environment on a daily basis. The issues highlighted were, the courage to speak, work life balance, professionalism and career progression.
Mentoring experience
Dilmini Peiris from Unilever shared her wonderful mentoring experience while encouraging the audience to build a positive attitude towards all phases in their career.
She truly painted a picture with her words as she conveyed to the audience, the importance of having a mentor and how it has impacted her life choices so far.
“Imagine the feeling you get in your stomach when facing an exam paper. Now imagine seen that exam paper, and not being able answer even one question of it. When I faced the final term maths paper before my O/Levels, I kid you not, I didn’t know what to do. I called my mother and asked her to come and get me. She came and lied on my behalf and took me home. Now clearly there was one long sermon waiting for me, telling me why I should have studied before and exams are coming up and the future is in my hands. Nothing of that happened, my mother said only one thing to me, and that was ‘no matter what you do in life, I know that you’ll be the best at it. It doesn’t matter if you become a singer, a dancer or a carpenter, I’ll be beside you to support you.’ This was the first turning point in my life and probably the best mentoring moment I’ve ever had thus far. This made me realise that a little bit of belief and encouragement can move mountains. For the next three months I studied hard and was able to get eight distinctions. I went on to do well in A/Levels and got four As, got a scholarship and went to Canada where I studied chemical engineering at Queens University,” she said fondly cherishing that memory.
Following on, she spoke about Dean Harris in her University who identified her capabilities and subtly pushed her towards valuable opportunities. “I knew there was encouragement, not only encouragement but also applaud for when I succeeded and that made me do more,” she said.
Speaking of the beginning of her career path she recalled how her brother helped her to get through a tough interview by Shell Canada. “These were telephone-based interviews and the day before the interview my brother said, you need to sit in front of a mirror, wear official attire, have your files in front of face, smile and talk. I thought he was stupid but looking back, it was one of the reasons why I was the only one who got through.”
She further mentioned that after completing her masters in Canada and working for some time, she realised that she should come back to Sri Lanka, her motherland. Then she put together few personal anecdotes about other mentors she met in her life.
“At a dinner I bumped into this gentleman called Ananda Hettiarachchi, the former Managing Director of Haycarb, Hayleys and he asked me if I would like to join as a Chemical Engineer. Then I found myself working in an activated carbon factory in Madampe as the only woman among 315 men,” she said as she described an unexpected change in her career where she took a chance to accept drastic changes in lifestyle including lowered living standards and completely different culture. “Ananda Hettiarachchi saw something, he tested my ability, he pushed me in to the deep end right there.”
She continued to talk about the time when Ananda got her involved in a 3M project to create masks that would suit the poisonous gases from carbon. “This gentleman pushed me in here with the required backing, with the required knowledge and required support around me. This made me realise I had the capability within to learn what I had to learn, to apply what I had learned and really add value when required,” she affirmed.
Moreover, she also mentioned a bit about her experiences as a management trainee at Unilever after leaving Hayleys. She went on to describe the mentor who silently supported her there. “There was one lady who was a silent support. I’d shoot an email to Gayani De Alwis who was the Supply Chain Director at the time asking for whatever support I needed and even at 2:01 a.m., I’d get a reply. That showed someone was there, someone had my back. The beauty here was my capability was never questioned, the decisions I made were never put down. She gave me the space I needed to make the decisions, to learn and maybe make mistakes which I obviously did because she also had a safety net for me to fall on to if required,” she said.
She pointed out that even after several years of working in the industry, you still need someone to give you that perspective sometimes. To take a step back and mirror your own actions and make you realise what is it you’re doing, right or wrong.
Dilmini did not forget to praise the lady she considers her latest mentor, Rumal Fernando for being that person who has brought perspective into her life when needed.
Having shared her valuable experience with the audience, Dilmini expressed her final thoughts on the topic of mentoring. “I leave you with this; there will be so many mentors whether coined that way or not who will help you get through life. Life is a pain, it’s either pain of improvement or pain of regret, and I suggest the first.”
Induction of new mentors
Next up was the induction of the 15 mentors who volunteered for mentoring roles. They represented all four sectors of the field, namely logistics and supply chain, shipping, road transport and aviation. The newly-appointed mentors were awarded with certificates and were called upon to light a candle each, on a decorated frame with the word ‘Ignite’ symbolising the light that will be shed on those who will be mentored by them.
The proceedings came to a close with the vote of thanks delivered by Anoma Ranasinghe who extended her sincere gratitude to the mentors, participants, event organisers and the sponsors.
Pix by Lasantha Kumara
