Making a difference in a child's life

Barista Lavazza, Sri Lanka's most popular coffee house chain celebrated the season by making a difference in a child's life. With the beginning of the school year at hand, the team recently provided school essentials to the children of Niyadhagala Vidyalaya, a remote school in the village of Kumaragama, Thanamalwila for the second consecutive year.

The campaign titled 'The Coffee That Gives' was spearheaded by Barista Lavazza Brand Manager Lien Keerthisinghe. With a simple but effective mode of creating a charity fund Barista was able to engage its valued customers in the project by offering them the opportunity to contribute to this fund every time they purchased a coffee.

By purchasing these items customers were given the opportunity to make a contribution towards the charity fund. However, doing their part, the management of Barista also pledged to match the total collection made rupee for rupee. As the number of coffee drinkers grew through the recent festive season, so did the fund which ultimately doubled through the company's generous contribution.

With many rallying around to help, Barista was able to purchase 125 school supply packs through the collected funds. These school supply packs included a school bag, uniform material, lunch box, water bottle, exercise books and other stationary material.

Knowing that many children attended school in slippers or barefoot Barista also included a gift voucher of Rs.1000 for shoes, making a huge difference in the lives of these children.

On December 8, 2015 the team at Barista visited Thanamanwila in order to distribute the school packs. Arriving at Niyadhagala Vidyalaya which was a mere single large hall making up the entire school it was clear that this was an ideal school to benefit from such a project. Greeted by the teachers with the traditional lighting of the oil lamp, the team then proceeded to handout the school packs to bright-eyed students who gathered around in excitement.

To add to the joy of the children, the Barista team also took along with them goodie bags filled with assorted candy, chocolates and sweets for the children to enjoy.