Commercial Bank’s IT labs help 15,000 children seek ‘a better tomorrow’

School children in four more schools have been gifted IT facilities under the flagship CSR activity of the Commercial Bank of Ceylon to improve IT education in Sri Lanka.

The Kahawatta Central College, Anura Maha Vidyalaya in Matara, D. S. Senanayake Maha Vidyalaya in Dambulla and Amaragedara Junior School in Horana are the latest beneficiaries of fully-equipped computer laboratories comprising of brand new computers installed with certified genuine software, laser printers and required furniture.

In the first six months of 2012 alone, Commercial Bank has donated IT labs to 10 schools benefiting more than 6,500 students.

This brings the total number of IT labs donated from 2010 to date by Commercial Bank to schools and other institutions to 48, benefiting more than 15,000 students, the Bank said.

All these schools receive assistance from the Bank to maintain and upgrade their computer labs when necessary to ensure that the facilities benefit many batches of students, the Bank said.

These donations are funded by Commercial Bank’s CSR Trust which assists the Bank to identify national priorities and deliver a structured response to the needs of the community.

“Our focused approach to CSR helps identify needy schools and monitor the functioning of donated labs to make sure that these projects deliver sustained benefits,” a spokesman for the Bank said.

“The computers donated by the Bank have enabled these students to learn new programs and improve their IT knowledge. This is particularly important because the need for IT literacy is ever increasing,” he said.

Commercial Bank’s CSR strategy is developed to complement the objectives, vision and mission of the Bank and supports its brand positioning of ‘for a better future’. The Bank has selected IT education as its primary sphere of community activity because it believes the subject is crucial to ensuring the growth and future of Sri Lankan society, the spokesman said.

The Bank plans to establish IT facilities at more schools in other parts of the country in the course of the year, he added.

The Commercial Bank’s CSR Trust was established in 2004. The trust commenced with a startup capital of Rs. 25 million and the Bank contributes up to 1% of its profits to it every year.