Love, hope and giving from SriLankan Cares

Love, hope and giving are emotions that are rekindled during the dawn of a new year.

SriLankan Airlines has placed its trust on the theology of love, hope and charity (giving) to create a greeting card which is a fundraising project for the airline’s charitable arm Sri Lankan Cares.

The project is to support the construction of the Children’s Psychiatric Ward at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital, Colombo.

The greeting cards with strong values embossed on its cover and personal messages from children are in packs of 10 and cost Rs. 1,000.

The community development arm of SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Cares has been actively participating in fund raising campaigns and charity activities with its main focus being the empowerment of children. 

SriLankan Cares has now focussed in funding and uplifting lives of differently-abled children, in addition to supporting education.  This greeting card is a call to everyone to re-look at the visually impaired, hearing impaired, and mentally impaired children as human beings with similar hopes, and interests and consider them as equal to any human being in society.

SriLankan Cares will dedicate itself to raise funds with a target of Rs. 8 million to renovate and develop Ward 5 of the Lady Ridgeway Hospital, which is the only hospital ward in the country to treat children with mental health disorders. 

It has been reported that many children in the country have mental health problems that interfere with their normal development and daily life and that they are not given adequate attention and proper treatment.

It is important to note that they can return to their normal daily lives, if they receive appropriate treatment.

SriLankan Airline’s CEO Kapila Cha-ndrasena said: “A culture of giving is one of the defining features of a successful society and this continuous tradition of empowerment of children with education and good health by the National Carrier will improve the quality of life of the children in this country.” 

SriLankan Airl-ines will make this project a success, whilst opening a whole world of hope for those innocent children who have been less cared for.

SriLankan Cares has already carried out major development projects in three rural schools in different parts of the country providing buildings and infrastructure such as classrooms, libraries, and computer labs.

The first was the expansion of Meepagama Jayanthi Maha Vidyalaya at Kalawana in the Ratnapura District in 2003, where the school with a capacity for 400 students found itself educating a 1,000 following a flood which destroyed several other schools in the area.

The second was Al Bahriyah Maha Vidyalaya at Kalmunai in the Batticaloa District, a school with 1,500 children which was rebuilt following the tsunami of 2004.

The third major school project was the uplifting of Debarawewa School.