Hemas opens 35th Piyawara pre-school in resettled village of Silawathei, Mullaitivu

Hemas Holdings recently opened its 35th Pre-School in the resettled village of Silawathei, Mullaitivu Town. This is the second such Community Pre-School, the first one being at Ambalnagar.

This was also a dream come true for the 50 little children of Silawathei, who along with their grateful parents, came to witness the opening of their own little pre-school. After years of deprivation, they were all ready to embark on a new journey that would take them through the exciting world of learning, the joys of learning the letters of the alphabet, numbers on a counting frame and much more.

This was also a great moment of pride and satisfaction for Hemas, indeed a landmark event in the decade old history of Piyawara in Sri Lanka.

The primary CSR project of Hemas Group, Piyawara was launched in 2002 in collaboration with the Ministry of Child Development. Considered one of the best public-private sector initiatives in the country, it currently operates 35 pre-schools island wide by providing education for over 3,000 children on a daily basis.

Hemas Outreach Foundation Executive Director Shiromi Masakorala said, “Piyawara has, at all times, given us a deep sense of fulfilment. Seeing the smiles on the faces of these little children, be they from the North, South, East or West, inspires us to continue this project into the future and with greater determination. We also thank the troops of the 59th division of the Sri Lanka Army for having facilitated this school in the village of Silawathei for the benefit of the little children. The local community too is very appreciative of this initiative and has a lot of praise for the Sri Lanka Army”, she added.

Post-war 2009, Hemas operated temporary pre-schools in Menik Farm, Vavuniya and provided all facilities. As a long term measure to support the community in the North Hemas has also built ‘Model’ pre-schools in the key cities of North and ‘Community pre-schools’ for the marginalised communities in the resettled villages of the Northern peninsula.

The Hemas Outreach Foundation provides training to all the pre-school teachers while all ‘Piyawara’ pre-schools are monitored and sustained by Hemas and the Ministry with teachers appointed by the Local Government or Rural Development Societies.

“Piyawara is in its 10th anniversary. This has been a very rewarding journey as we have touched the lives of over 3,000 little children across the geographical divide. On behalf of the Hemas Group and Hemas Outreach Foundation, we thank the Sri Lanka Army for its un-stinted support and for facilitating this project. We see massive development taking place in the region and are happy to be a part of this nation building process by supporting the national plan. We also place on record our deep gratitude to all our donors and trustees for their support,” said Hemas Outreach Foundation Chairman Abbas Esufally.

Piyawara stands today as a successful initiative, a sustainable and ongoing project by Hemas and the Children’s Secretariat demonstrating the success of Government—Private sector partnerships in addressing national issues and going beyond the geographical divide.