Cares completes Rs. 18 million school building project

The dreams of thousands of children in the southern town of Debarawewa came true when Sri Lankan Cares presented Janadhipathi Prathamika Vidyalaya with a brand new building, which would enable them to study up to the Ordinary Level standard.

The Rs. 18 million project was carried out by SriLankan Cares, the community development arm of SriLankan Airlines, which raised funding for the project through assistance from various contributors.

Minister of Ports and Aviation Chamal Rajapaksa at the opening of the new building

The school in the Hambantota District, had facilities only up to 8th Grade, with the new 7,500 square feet building it will have 11 classrooms and a computer laboratory.

The building was handed over at a ceremony on January 18 in the presence of the school's 3,900 students, parents, and its 100 teachers.

Minister of Ports and Aviation Chamal Rajapaksa who was the Chief Guest at the inauguration, said: "On behalf of the Government, I thank SriLankan Cares for carrying out this project, and assisting our objective of building a brighter future for our youth. It gives us great pride to have an airline such as SriLankan Airlines, and I hope that other State and private sector organisations will soon follow the example set by our National Carrier, and make a tangible contribution to society by participating in such important projects."

Phase II of the project took just three months, and the 2,500 square feet third storey with four classrooms equipped with furniture, at an investment of Rs. 6 million. Phase I of the project was completed a year ago, and involved seven classrooms and a fully equipped computer lab at a cost of Rs. 12 million.

CEO of SriLankan Airlines, Manoj Gunawardena said: "This project is the result of the dedication and hard work of the staff of SriLankan, who proved that one can do wonders if you have the determination to succeed.

The last two years were extremely difficult ones for the global airline industry and SriLankan which suffered from a downturn in business, resulting in scarcity of funding for programs such as this. But our staff were determined to complete the work that we started at this school, and saw this project through to the end by contributing their time and resources."

The school has built a reputation for excellence, especially at the Year 5 Scholarship Examination at which it consistently maintains a pass rate of 30% of its students. In addition, more than 75% of them obtained over 100 marks. At last year's exam, 137 students obtained the pass mark, of whom many were admitted to Colombo's finest schools, including seven to Royal College and three to Visakha Vidyalaya.

In the year 2000, a student of this school was ranked first in the nation at the Scholarship Exam, while another was ranked fourth in 2007.

W.K. Dharmadasa, the school Principal, said: "The staff of this school has taken great pride in providing a level of education at the junior level equal to that of the finest schools in Colombo. We pledge that we will build a similar record at the O/Levels within the next three years, and honour the efforts taken on behalf of our school by SriLankan Cares and Minister Chamal Rajapaksa."

This is the third major school project carried out by SriLankan Cares. The first was the expansion of Meepagama Jayanthi Maha Vidyalaya at Kalawana in the Ratnapura District in 2003 after the school with a capacity for 400 students found itself educating over 1,000 following a flood which destroyed several other schools in the area.

The second was Al Bahriyah Maha Vidyalaya at Kalmunai in the Batticaloa District, a school of 1,500 children that SriLankan Cares helped rebuild following the tsunami in 2004.

SriLankan Airlines staff also assists several schools around Bandaranaike International Airport, and the airline has for many years had internship programs for undergraduates of the Universities of Colombo, Sri Jayawardenapura and Ruhuna.