New initiatives by CIC to elevate education in rural agri-communities

Friday, 24 February 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

CIC Seeds to launch a host of new initiatives to uplift the education system in the rural agricultural communities through the ‘CIC Manussakama’ CSR program

‘CIC Seeds’, a part of CIC Agri businesses which is a subsidiary of CIC Holdings PLC plans to implement a series of initiatives, under the company’s holistic CSR program - ‘CIC Manussakama’, primarily aiming to support and uplift the education among children in rural agricultural communities across the island.

As a company known for its consistency insupportingand uplifting the standard of rural economy through latest technology and innovation, CIC Holdings launched ‘CIC Manussakama’ in 2008 to identify and address the key requirements of the rural farming community, and all CSR initiatives undertaken by CIC since then have been implemented through the ‘CIC Manussakama’ program which has made it a multi-dimensional and multifaceted community welfare program due to the diverse approaches taken in and through the projects.

‘CIC Seeds’ has now taken a step forward through the highly versatile CSR program, to venture into several key initiatives to precisely understand the fundamental needs of the education system in rural areas in order to cater to them with greater effectiveness. While elaborating on this CIC Holdings PLC Managing Director/CEO Samantha Ranatunga said, “Upon understanding the unattended needs of students in Agri-communities, we commenced the provision of ‘pipe-borne’ water facilities to schools in rural areas last year. Dodangolla Mahavidyalaya in Bibile was one of the first to reap the benefit of this project. Moreover, CIC was also able to donate playground facilities to a school in Bibile. We are currently working with four more schools located in Mahinyanganaya, Monaragala and Galenbindunuwewa to ensure that they receive pipe-borne water facilities in the very near future. It gives us great pleasure to be a part of these initiatives that have enabled us to cater to the needs of over 2,000 students.

Since 2015, we have been privileged to conduct scholarship seminars to children from the rural Agricultural communities for two consecutive yearssuccessfully, extending this opportunity to over 3000 students from several areas across the island including Mahiyanganaya, Bibile, Siyambalanduwa, Moneragala and Galenbindunuwewa. As a gesture to usher the New Year andfurther strengthen our contribution towards improving and uplifting the lives of the local Agri-community, we intend to launch the next series of initiative soon.”

It is remarkable that CIC’s strong passion and commitment towards social responsibility in this manner has earned the company numerous awards and accolades in the past both locally and internationally, including the ‘Best Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative’ at the annual award ceremony organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and ‘Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award, which were indubitably key milestones in the journey of ‘CIC Manussakama’.