School children in many rural areas of Sri Lanka will have an opportunity to enhance their IT skills thanks to a new community initiative of the Commercial Bank of Ceylon and the Mother Sri Lanka Programme of the Presidential Secretariat. Under this programme, Commercial Bank has announced plans to donate computers and related equipment to set up computer laboratories in several underprivileged schools. The first set of beneficiary schools have been selected from the North Central, Uva and North Western provinces and a completed computer laboratory is to be handed over to the students of the first beneficiary of the project, the Kosgolla Maha Vidyalaya in Badulla district in early January 2011, the Bank said.

Kosgolla Maha Vidyalaya is a school in Uva Province that won 3^rd place from Mother Sri Lanka School Dialogue competition in Sinhala medium among 8 schools that participated. When they were presenting their Mother Sri Lanka projects at the all-island final in Colombo in June 2010, Mother Sri Lanka realized that they do not have computer in the school. Hence this school has been selected as the 1^st schools to launch the Mother Sri Lanka- Commercial Bank community project.

Another four schools in the Anuradhapura, Puttalam and Kurunegala districts have been identified by the project to receive computer labs. Other schools that need such assistance may make a request to the Mother Sri Lanka programme.

“Enhancing the IT knowledge of school children is vital for their individual, as well as the country’s progress,” said Mr Mahendra Amarasuriya, Chairman of Commercial Bank’s CSR Trust. “IT skills will benefit everything they do in the future, from higher education to employment.”

“We recognized that although IT is a subject in the school syllabus, many schools in rural areas do not have the necessary equipment to teach the subject effectively. Therefore we decided to fund this project which we consider as an investment in the future of the children of Sri Lanka,” Mr Amarasuriya added.

Mother Sri Lanka Chairperson Ms Janaki Kuruppu said: “In order to be selected to receive the benefits of this program the schools must be members of the Mother Sri Lanka movement. In other words, these schools and their children have already pledged their loyalty & patriotism to the country. We do not believe in just giving as charity, if you believe in Mother Sri Lanka you should be able to think “Country first.” The Mother Sri Lanka schools have already participated in this program and shown their commitment & interest in this nation building program. The Mother Sri Lanka club in the school will look after this computer lab as their contribution to the effort. “

When selecting schools to benefit under this scheme, consideration is mainly given to rural schools based on up to which grade they conduct classes, the number of students and the availability of teachers to handle the subject of IT. The Commercial Bank of Ceylon will fund the project while the selection of schools and coordination will be the responsibility of the Mother Sri Lanka programme. Once a school is selected the nearest branch of Commercial Bank will interact closely with the school to ensure proper utilization of the equipment to benefit the students.

The Mother Sri Lanka Program was launched to promote activities for a positive change in Sri Lanka and receives leadership direction and support from the Office of the President. It conducts activities, programmes and communication campaigns to build pride in being Sri Lankan and develop positive thinking about Sri Lanka. It conducts grassroots activity that contributes towards nation building through the development of professional, physical and spiritual wellbeing of all Sri Lankans and also attracts international resources towards developing Sri Lanka. Mother Sri Lanka is a not for profit charitable organization.

The Commercial Bank contributes up to one per cent of its post tax profits every year towards CSR activities. In addition to assisting in upgrading English and IT education in rural schools, the Bank has been involved in many other CSR activities such as, granting scholarships to undergraduates, assisting Children’s Homes, donating equipment and essentials to several major hospitals & childrens wards, repairing the path-way to Sri Pada, donation of essential items for internally displaced in the North, construction of houses for IDPs with the assistance of the SL Army and many such other projects.

Mother ஸ்ரீ ලංකා Pre school program launching ceremony from 9.00am onwards on 14^th December 2010 at Taj Samudra, Colombo. The pre schools system of the country is governed by a National Policy on Early Childhood Care Development (ECCD) through Children’s Secretariat of the Ministry of Child Development & Women’s Affairs. As per the statistics, we have approx. 600,000 preschool children who are getting education in approx. 17,000 Preschools Island wide.

Children are the key target group of Mother ஸ்ரீ ලංකා from its inception. Programs have been implemented to get the maximum involvement of children in the age group of 11 to 18yrs island-wide. In order to reach this target group, a series of dialog competitions on the lines of: “What can the children of Sri Lanka give back to our country?” was organized by the foundation along with Ministry of Education. With the completion of the schools program, Mother ஸ்ரீ ලංකා school clubs have been set up island wide. Hence, Mother ஸ்ரீ ලංකා has reached 3 million school children and 6 million of their parents which is 9 million out of our family of 20 million people. As the next step, a special program has been proposed to include Preschool children of Sri Lanka, in order to inculcate good values and behaviors amongst the young children.

Target Group: 3 – 5 years children in preschools. The project will reach over 600,000 preschool children based in all 24 districts of the country.

Why Preschool aged children?

• The first 5 years are critical in every child’s life as the foundation is laid during this period

• 80% of brain development takes place during this period. Much of its ‘wiring’ is laid down. This is greatly influenced by the experience and relationships a child has including nutrition & health (Positive experiences help the brain to develop in a healthy way).

• The experiences gained during this period with reinforcement will have lasting effects.

• In terms of growth & development 3-5 years is a time significant in cognitive, language & personality development. Especially, early socialization (contacts with outside world

• beyond the home environment).