Another benevolent gesture by ComBank

Picture shows Ravi Dias, Chief Operating Officer Commercial Bank (4th from left) handing over one of the computers to Lion S. Arumuganathan, Lion T. Jeyaraj and Lion P. Kamalanathan. Others in the picture are (From left) Lion S. Sirinivasan - District Coordinator (Education and Career Guidance), Lion D. Stephen Leonard - Deputy Cabinet Secretary (Regions 8-10), Lion S. Raveendra - Senior Manager of Commercial Bank-Jaffna and District Coordinator (Leadership Development), Lion C. Sunthareswaran - Deputy Cabinet Treasurer (Regions 8-10) and Lion S. Gnanarajah - District Coordinator (Information Technology).

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon in partnership with the Lions Club has set up a computer section at the Vocational Training Centre at Tellipallai to provide IT knowledge to youth in the area.

The Bank's Corporate Social Responsibility Trust donated eight computers to the Vocational Training Centre through this latest CSR project of the Bank. Construction of the Vocational Training Centre was done by the Lions Club of Mallakam, Tellipallai, the cost of which was mainly borne by Lion S. Arumuganathan, District Co-coordinator - Vocational Training, while the land for the building was donated by Lion. T. Jeyaraj.

"This was one of several projects carried out in the North with the launch of our 365 Day Banking facility in Jaffna," Commercial Bank's Chief Operating Officer, Ravi Dias said. "Most of our CSR projects in this area are aimed at uplifting standard of education, particularly in IT and English."

Lion S. Raghavan, Past District Governor of Lions Clubs International - District 306 B1 and one time Manager of Commercial Bank Jaffna branch initiated the project to build a computer section at the Vocational Training Centre, and sought the assistance of Commercial Bank to buy the necessary computer equipment.

The Commercial Bank's CSR Trust was established for the purpose of fostering projects focused on education, child welfare, rehabilitation of irrigation systems and community services. The Trust commenced with a startup capital of Rs. 25 million and the Bank contributes up to one per cent of its post tax profits every year towards it.