Education giving rural children a chance

Lianne Houben launches Give to Sri lanka with Dulan De Silva​

Lianne Houben addresses the gathering

‘Creating future leaders by giving educational and career support to underprivileged children’ is one of Berendina’s core missions that reached another epic milestone, when it launched one of the first crowd funding platforms in Sri Lanka, to raise educational funds from the public.

The launch held at JAIC Hilton recently, graced by Embassy of Netherlands in Sri Lanka charge de affairs Lianne Houben, was a huge success as prestigious personalities such as the Dutch Ambassador Louis W.M. Piët, Jayantha Dhanapala, Hanif Yousuf, Prof. Hiran Dias, Hemaka Amarasooriya and Priyanthi Fernando endorsed this initiative whilst pledging their support towards the cause. Berendina Group Chairman Dulan de Silva, in his address to the audience stated that, children are the most precious gift as well as the strength of our nation’s future. Believing that all our children have equal rights to education and well-being has been a mantra for Berendina since its inception over two decades ago, he further stated.

Berendina’s inception in Sri Lanka dates back to 1992 and its projects are designed to impact development and livelihood work in many districts. de Silva led the audience through the beginnings of Berendina to its current victories and proudly invited the public to learn the numerous feats it has endowed on the many rural communities.

This crowd funding platform called ‘Give2SriLanka’ has a deeper undertaking as it plans to spread its donation yield to fulfil good deeds in many facets along poverty alleviation.

Berendina currently awards over 1,000 scholarships annually to talented and keen yet, underprivileged students in the rural areas to enable them to continue their studies without any interruption. Some of these children reside in plantations, remote rural villages and post-conflict areas where the most marginalised communities can be found. Berendina’s efforts managed to award Rs. 10 million worth of scholarships last year alone and it hopes to increase its impact by using its newest vessel ‘Give2Sri Lanka’.

The wholesome nature of the scholarship program is that it offers assistance throughout the journey of a child, from student to a professional. After advanced Level, students are provided with career counselling and higher education support leading to employment. Students who enrol for university will be given a monthly allowance throughout their studies. Students who wish to become employed soon after their Advanced Level examination, will be linked with 300+ partner companies registered with Berendina Employment Centre for entry level jobs. 

Students who wish to follow vocational training or higher education in selected professional courses leading to employment will be awarded with up to Rs. 50,000 worth of scholarships. Last but not least, students are given the opportunity to improve their English and other soft skills in moulding them to be future leaders. The success of this program was amply demonstrated by the testaments of two students whose journey took them through their Ordinary Level studies to undergraduate level endeavours through the support of the scholarships. Of the two students who spoke, one is currently enrolled at the Dental Faculty at the Peradeniya University while the other is following her undergraduate studies at the Arts Faculty of University of Kelaniya.   

The scholarship program currently works in nine districts and intends to extend this to 5,000 by 2020 and to all districts in the future with the increase of beneficiaries to an optimistic 100,000 children as well as with higher monthly allowance than now.

Berendina invites the public to join its mission in supporting children by visiting the web on www.give2srilanka.com.