Mihiri Udabage

Content Writer and Communications Specialist

Australia

Mihiri can advise on your content marketing strategy: creating SEO-optimised content at the right time in the right place for the right audience. She has a special interest in creating story banks for not-for-profits and innovators. Mihiri has extensive experience as a freelance writer in the parenting, education and community sectors. Mihiri's work is backed by her Master of Communications degree...and insatiable curiosity.
Below is a small sample of Mihiri's work.

Email: [email protected]

Portfolio

COMMUNITY AND NOT-FOR-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS

Ruby Connection
07/27/2016
Women in business - turning a great idea into reality

Faye Lee has been Healthy Waterways' Chief Financial Officer for the past seven years. Healthy Waterways is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that works with government, industry and the community to protect and improve South East Queensland's waterways. Faye's passion for the cause is strong, rivalled only by her steadfast commitment to steer the not-for-profit towards self-sustainability.

Pro Bono Australia
How your brand can turn followers into fans

Thursday, 23rd June 2016 at 9:25 am Sponsored: Lali Wiratunga, from Westpac Social Sector Banking speaks with Jenna Moffat from Clickability, who was awarded a Social Change Fellowship, about becoming a champion for people living with a disability and attracting the support of investors and the community.

Room to Read Blog
02/02/2011
Volunteering at the Sydney Wine Gala

As I head out the door to volunteer at the Room to Read Wine Gala, I am met with protests from my children, aged 8 and 6: “Don’t go, Mummy—stay home!” “I have to go,” I counter. “We have to make sure lots of children get to go to school, just like you do, right?”

Parenting

CHILD Magazines
2015
Raising Kids Who Read

Some of Australia's most popular children's authors share advice on how to raise kids who love to read.

Essential Kids
09/05/2015
To the Dads I Saw This Week

I write a lot about parenting, and mostly it's from my own perspective as a mother. This week, I used that lens and paid close attention to the dads I saw. To the dad walking his kids to day care-getting up the hill with a baby strapped to your back and a pre-schooler clamped at your hand is already hard work.

Essential Kids
06/06/2016
10 signs you're over parenting your child

Well-intentioned and loving parents, beware! Over parenting is a 'thing' and even intelligent and devoted parents are doing it, says Dr Wendy Mogel, clinical psychologist and author of The New York Times best-selling parenting book, The Blessing of a B-Minus.

Essential Kids on Facebook
04/24/2015
6 reasons why your son should learn ballet

Her 10-year-old son was reluctant at first but after six months of ballet lessons Mihari Udabage only wishes her son had started sooner.

Happychild
Maternal depression most common at four years after birth of first child

The number of first-time mothers suffering from depression peaks fours years after giving birth, finds a new study published in BJOG:An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. This new research from Murdoch Children's Research Institute, shines a spotlight on the mental health and wellbeing of mothers of pre-school aged children.

Education

Essential Kids
11/26/2015
An open letter to my daughter as she starts high school

You're starting high school soon. I can't believe it. Still hanging in my closet is the strappy summer dress I wore on your first day of kindergarten. I remember it well-your clammy little fingers crumpled the hem as you clung to it, until a sweet young teacher came to our aid, untying you from me, before gently leading you away.

Happychild
Should I send my child to a gifted and talented class?

All government schools in Australia have a responsibility to identify gifted and talented children and provide opportunities to optimise their education. But right now in New South Wales, many public primary school parents are considering whether to apply for their child to attend an Opportunity Class during years 5 and 6.

Happychild
Using mindfulness for teacher wellbeing

Promising results from pilot studies of teachers using mindfulness in classrooms are exciting educators like Dr Mark Greenberg, child development researcher from Penn State University's College of Health and Human Development, and Christa Turksma, psychologist, teacher and mindfulness trainer.

Opinion Pieces

The Sydney Morning Herald
07/13/2015
We're home: immigrants, proud Australians

Being told to 'go back to where you came from' is as isolating as it is hurtful. When Dawn Fraser blasted Nick Kyrgios for his "disgusting" behaviour at Wimbledon, then suggested he "should go back to where his parents came from", I felt my heart harden in his defence.

Smh
Somebody needs a lesson about unwanted lessons

I HATE instructions at the best of times. Unless it's: "sit back and relax, your martini is on its way". This makes me especially attuned to the impossible instruction when it dares to cross my path. Unfortunately they seem to abound, particularly at times when one is least able to appreciate them.

Smh
If you're a nay-sayer, stand up and be counted

HECKLER JUST say no. I'm not talking about drug-taking; I'm talking about etiquette. That is, the etiquette of replying to a letter or email, especially when the answer is "no". I've noticed that if a person I am communicating with does not wish to reply to me in the affirmative, rather than say "No thank you", "No, not now", "No, we don't ..."