Life insurance leader Ceylinco Life has constructed and donated new classroom buildings to six rural schools in the first five months of 2013 under the company’s community initiative to support education in under-served towns and villages across Sri Lanka.
Another four buildings are under construction and would be handed over to the beneficiary schools before the end of July, the company said.
The first six schools to receive classroom buildings from Ceylinco Life this year were Dudley Senanayake Vidyalaya (Ampara), Welivita Sri Sangaraja Junior School (Pilimatalawa), Sri Wimalavansa Junior School (Akuressa), Padavi Eiyaya Maha Vidyalaya (Padaviya) and Pallegama Maha Vidyalaya (Deniyaya) and Sonuththara Junior School (Mahiyangana).
The schools for which classrooms are under construction are in Ingiriya, Wattegama, Warakapola and Ja-Ela.
‘As always, these projects benefit schools with genuine needs and take us to distant towns and villages that are often overlooked for assistance,’ Ceylinco Life’s Managing Director and CEO R. Renganathan said. ‘Our ability to identify needs in some of these areas is the result of a truly island-wide network of more than 200 branches.’
The ten schools assisted by the company this year accommodate about 4,000 students.
Commencing with a classroom built for the Tissa Primary School in Lunugamvehera in 2004, Ceylinco Life’s schools infrastructure project has traversed the length and breadth of Sri Lanka, assisting schools in diverse locations such as Jaffna, Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Batticaloa in the north and east of the island; Embilipitiya, Deniyaya and Kamburupitiya in the south; Bandarawela, Haputale, Kandy and Matale in the hill country, and Anurdhapura, Moneragala and Anamaduwa.
By October 2012, the company had assisted 50 schools, 44 with classrooms, four with water supply projects and two with a laboratory building and a library.
Ceylinco Life defines its Corporate Social Responsibility as ‘The continuing commitment of the company to create a sustainable business environment even in the remotest areas of the country through meaningful interventions in areas such as healthcare and education for needy people, while providing protection and financial security of the highest quality.’
Besides contributing to the development of infrastructure in needy schools, the company also funds and coordinates a series of free medical camps across the country each year under its ‘Waidya Hamuwa’ (meet the doctor) programme, conducts a series of educational workshops for pregnant mothers and organises blood donation campaigns in collaboration with the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS).
