Executive Search client supports orphanage and wins prestigious Serco Heart Award

Executive Search Limited Sri Lanka (ESL) had the pleasure of introducing Susan Campbell-Beattie of Dubai Air Navigation Services to the Sri Jinananda Boys Orphanage, Colombo, Sri Lanka in March 2012, when she expressed a desire to engage in a suitable humanitarian project in this country.

The Sri Jinananda Boys Orphanage, which is in close proximity to the ESL office at Colombo 4, has had a long standing relationship with ESL ever since its members had an opportunity to visit and see for themselves the condition of the home.

Members of ESL were quick to step forward to provide assistance in numerous ways along the years as part of their CSR projects, by way of educational aids, clothes, shoes and lately, cricket equipment to cater to the yearnings of the boys Their enthusiasm had been so much so that the team won a tournament soon after, bringing joy to the ESL team as well.

In this background, it was only natural for the ESL team to suggest the Sri Jinananda Boys Home to Campbell-Beattie, who visited the orphanage again in December 2012 to continue the projects undertaken in March.

Campbell-Beattie is Office Manager for Dubai Air Navigation Services (DANS) – part of the SERCO group worldwide. Executive Search Ltd. had had the good fortune of meeting Campbell-Beattie through Adam Campbell, her spouse, who frequently visits Sri Lanka on the recruitment needs of his company. Such recruitment needs have been serviced by ESL.

Campbell-Beattie was able to provide great assistance to the orphanage. In March 2012, she sourced a donation of a little over Rs. 100,000 with the support of the members of DANS, which was utilised to provide a fairly large stock of school uniforms and T-shirts for all the boys.  The donation also served to provide three days worth of groceries and dry provisions for the kitchen.

In December 2012, she again sourced a donation of nearly Rs. 500,000. This served well in providing a large part of the annual school bags, school stationery, stitching of additional uniforms and footwear. Further provisions and fresh groceries were provided for the kitchen.

A substantial portion was utilised to raise the boundary wall leading to the river. Wire fencing was placed to secure the open area above the new kitchen. Two bunk beds were purchased. Storage cupboards were constructed for 15 of the older boys. The donation also brought pleasure to the boys by a year-end visit to the famed Kiri Vehara Temple in Kataragama, a city that has holy significance to the all ethnic groups forming the fabric of Sri Lanka.

In recognition of her services to an orphanage for destitute boys such as the Sri Jinananda Boys Orphanage, Campbell-Beattie has been selected as recipient of the Heart Award 2012 from SERCO. SERCO has its head office in UK, and is a company registered in England and Wales. It works through a network of offices all around the world and annually recognises and provides awards for several categories, namely, Excelling at Innovation, Inspirational Leadership, Demonstrating Outstanding Commitment, Making an Exceptional Impact and the Heart Award. The awards ceremony was held in Dubai on 21 March 2013.

In another act of selfless magnanimity, she nominated a senior officer from the group to take her place, as she had planned to be in Sri Lanka during this period to complete the program. ESL was pleased and proud to have been a supporting force in this humanitarian achievement and extended warm congratulations to Campbell-Beattie and her team.

The Sri Jinananda Boys Orphanage is housed within the premises of a Buddhist temple. It currently accommodates 68 boys aged three to 18 years.  It is overseen by a head priest and a trainee priest.  It is run day-to-day by a permanent, full-time volunteer of seven years and four other volunteers. The orphanage employs two cooks.

Situated on a river bank wedged behind a row of small shops, the building occupies a precarious spot that is prone to flooding during heavy rains with an additional danger of little boys falling in. A wall was therefore partly constructed from donor funds. Donor funds also took care of a part of the roof of the building. Having little or no embellishment, the building is fairly open to the elements and hence needs continuous maintenance and refurbishment.

The Reverend Urumutte Sugathananda, Chief Incumbent, Principal of Sastrananda Pirivena of Dehiwala, Incumbent and Director of Sri Jinananda Children’s Home stated that Campbell-Beattie was a lady who took extra effort and special attention towards the development needs of orphans. She displayed great concern about the children’s food, clothing, education and even their educative field visits.

The Chief Incumbent was highly appreciative of the fact that Campbell-Beattie took the burden of arranging funds to help this home. Due to her efforts a wall had been constructed for the safety of the children too.  The Chief Incumbent commended her efforts from March 2012 to date and mentioned that she had promised to continue these projects in an uninterrupted manner in the future until the home reached a reasonably safe standard. He invoked the blessings of the Triple Gem to grant her courage and strength to serve the poor and needy children not only of this home but maybe to carve her name as a champion of children all over the world.

Executive Search Limited Chairman/MD Fayaz Saleem expressed satisfaction that the members of ESL had identified a worthy project as one of their CSR endeavours. He urged the team to continue to introduce donors who could make the lives of each and every orphan boy in the home as comfortable as possible whilst keeping the momentum of ESL’s own CSR endeavours.

Executive Search Ltd. is a long established recruitment, search and placement agency providing the mid to senior level staff for clients from the commercial and industrial sector in Sri Lanka and overseas. ESL holds a large client portfolio of well-known firms, banks, hotels, retailers and technical/industrial companies overseas and works using ultra modern techniques and advanced databases as well as traditional head-hunting in its efforts to provide service excellence to its clients. ESL also works with associates in many countries abroad to provide cross country placements if a client so requires expertise from any part of the world, further consolidating its reputation as a fully refined search and placement agency.