Charles Education Centre opens new school in Anuradhapura with help from Hayleys Group

Friday, 23 June 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Extending a helping hand to communities in the Anuradhapura, UK-based charity, the Charles Education Centre, opened the Mahawilachichiya Education Centre for Children with a view to providing underprivileged communities in the region with access to high quality educational facilities.

The new facility, which was completed with assistance from the Hayleys Group, will now be open to the school’s growing student population with a particular emphasis on Information Technology (IT) and languages, as a foundation for significantly improved career opportunities and upward mobility in rural Sri Lanka.

“Our experience in establishing the Charles Education Centre has been a very personal one that first started when our daughter, Marissa, made her first journey to Sri Lanka and witnessed first-hand the desperate need of local communities for even the most basic educational facilities.

“Having first established the Mahawilachichiya Education Centre for Children, it has been a truly heart-warming experience to see the passion for learning and self-empowerment begin to take root in children and adults from these communities and we in that regard express our sincere gratitude to the Hayleys Group for the valuable support in moving this important initiative forward, in order to enrich the lives of so many in the process,” Charles Education Centre founder Lovina Charles stated.

In keeping with the holistic Hayleys approach towards responsible corporate citizenship, the group also donated further resources towards the establishment of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centre of excellence in the village of Mahawilachchiya with a view to providing vital, high-quality employment opportunities to a new generation of young students in the community. Speaking candidly at the opening of the new building, Hayleys Chairman/Chief Executive Mohan Pandithage reiterated the importance of education, and functional familiarity with IT for future generations. “The lack of quality educational services and facilities remain one of our country’s greatest limiting factors to future growth. In order to support true broad-based growth and prosperity it is imperative that initiatives like the Charles Education Centre are supported and emulated in underprivileged communities across the island. By empowering future generations we will enable new growth paradigms in Sri Lanka,” he stated.

Given that a majority of parents in the region are predominantly farmers, Hayleys also took the bold step to establish its pioneering moringa out grower model into the community under the Jeewadhara program. Initiated in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province through a highly successful network of 100,000 out growers, the Mahawilachchiya moringa project is anticipated to drastically enhance farmer incomes and livelihoods while creating a sustainable supply of pods and leaves for domestic consumption and value added exports.