Year 5 students in two schools located in Elpitiya and Kegalle will walk into new purpose-built classrooms when schools reopen in the new year thanks to Ceylinco Life, which donated its 82nd and 83rd classrooms to these schools recently under one of the Company’s flagship community initiatives.
The beneficiary schools are Sri Dhammajothi Primary School, Helamada, Kegalle, and G/Thanabaddegama Anagarika Dharmapala School, Elpitiya. These building projects were coordinated by the Warakapola and Elpitiya branches of the life insurance leader, respectively.
The construction of both classrooms began in January 2020, was completed in July and August and the buildings were formally handed over to the schools in December 2020 despite the pandemic, the Company said.
While both schools educate students from Grade 1 to the GCE Ordinary Level, Sri Dhammajothi Primary School has 169 students and 19 teachers. Classes are predominantly conducted in a large hall shared by all. The Thanabaddegama Anagarika Dharmapala School has 280 students and 18 teachers. Students in this school resort to learning in the garden area as they too have only one shared classroom.
The schools stated that the donation of a new classroom will significantly increase the ability of the Grade 5 Scholarship Exam level students to focus on their studies. Since most of these students do not have access to tuition classes and depend solely on their schools for education, the exclusive classrooms are of much value, they said.
Ceylinco Life’s 81st classroom donation that took place in December 2019 benefited Grade 1 students of the Mahakalupahana Junior School in Matugama. The Company built and donated classroom buildings to 12 needy schools in 2018-19 under this programme begun 16 years ago. Every classroom built over the years continues to be monitored by the Company to ensure it serves many generations of students, and Ceylinco Life returned to 38 of them in 2018 to undertake re-painting and repairs, even as it continued to identify more schools for buildings to be built in the years ahead
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, Mutur, Batticaloa, Sittandy, Mollipatana, Ayithyamalai, Embilipitiya, Nivithigala, Beligala, Avissawella, Deniyaya, Kamburupitiya, Bandarawela, Haputale, Rambukkana, Kandy, Pilimatalawa, Madulkele, Rikillagaskada, Rajawella, Matale, Galgamuwa, Padaviya, Boraluwewa, Anuradhapura, Moneragala, Anamaduwa, Matugama, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Wellawaya, Talawa, Chilaw, Galagedara, Rathkarawwa, Hatton, Badulla, Nuwara Eliya, Welimada, Puttalam, Polonnaruwa, Mathugama, and now Elpitiya and Kegalle.
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.’
Ceylinco Life operates the largest network of 250 plus branches in Sri Lanka’s life insurance industry, giving it a physical presence in 142 cities, towns, and villages in every one of the island’s 25 districts.
Sri Lanka’s leading life insurer for more than half of the 33 years it has been in existence, and certified as a ‘Great Workplace’ in Sri Lanka by Great Place to Work®, Ceylinco Life was ranked the Most Valuable Life Insurance Brand in Sri Lanka by Brand Finance this year and declared the ‘Peoples Life Insurance Service Provider of the Year’ for the 14th consecutive year at the 2020 SLIM-Nielsen Peoples Awards. The Company was also accorded an ‘Honourable Mention’ as one of the ‘Most Admired Companies in Sri Lanka’ in 2019-20 by the International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ICCSL) in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).
Ceylinco Life has close to a million lives covered by active policies and is acknowledged as a benchmark in the local insurance sector for innovation, product research and development, customer service, professional development and corporate social responsibility.