Hemas Piyawara opens pre-school in Ganthalawa

The Hemas Piyawara Initiative recently opened its newest Pre-School in Ganthalawa, a remote area six Kms off Kantale.

Built at a cost of Rs. 5.3 million, the Pre-School has 78 children and is headed by three dedicated teachers.

Funding for this project came from Ness Yammin, a donor in Monaco, through Ms. Chintha Senanayaka, a Sri Lankan resident there.

Ven. Bandagiriye Somawansa Thera, Director of the National Children’s Education Foundation was the chief guest. Director Hemas Holdings Abbas Esufally and several others were also present.

The Ven. Bandagiriye Somawansa Thera said it was a great blessing to have corporates such as Hemas which are dedicated to the uplift of ECCD in Sri Lanka. “I admire projects such as Piyawara which are done with the least publicity and which yet do so much for the betterment of children.

The improvement of the quality of early childhood education is critical since it lays the foundation for the long-term development of the country.

As an ECCD specialist I greatly value Hemas’ services in the East despite logistical difficulties”.

Corporate Relations Manager of Hemas Holdings, Ms. Shiromi Masakorale said that Hemas involvement with the Ganthalawa pre-school began in 2004.

“It was then housed in a small shed with 42 children. We enrolled the teachers in our annual Piyawara teacher training program and formed a Parent Teacher Association to develop the infrastructure.

With an initial donation of Rs. 50,000, we were in constant touch with the school and monitored its progress.

We even conducted parental awareness programs and brought the teachers to Colombo annually for training”.