Sanjiv Mendis Memorial Foundation partners SOS Children’s Villages to help underprivileged youth

The Sanjiv Mendis Memorial Foundation entered into a partnership with SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka to provide financial support to upgrade the SOS Vocational Training Centre, Anuradhapura. The Sanjiv Mendis Memorial Foundation Chairman Ricky Mendis, presented a cheque for Rs. 8,064,022 to SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka Board of Directors President Sandhya Weerasinghe at a meeting held at the Hotel Taj Samudra on 30 May 2013.

The Sanjiv Mendis Memorial Foundation, Director Charmaine Mendis, SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka, Board of Directors immediate past President Malsiri Dias, SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka National Director Ananda Karunarathne, The Sanjiv Mendis Memorial Foundation Director Selvam Mather and Ravindra Ruberu, were present at the meeting.

The very generous donation from The Sanjiv Mendis Memorial Foundation will be utilised towards equipping the SOS-VTC, Anuradhapura with modern machinery and apparatus to provide vocational training for youths from the families living under the poverty line in the Anuradhapura district.

Mr. and Mrs. Ricky Mendis, parents of the late Sanjiv Mendis, established the Sanjiv Mendis Memorial Foundation, in 1991. The Foundation has in the past organised island wide Art Competitions and awarded Gold medals for excellence, in addition to supporting many charitable causes, primarily those that were of special interest to Sanjiv himself.

SOS Vocational Training Centre (VTC), Anuradhapura, which is an ancillary project of SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka, was initiated in 1997 as an extension of the work that SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka was doing (when the peace talks were in progress) with the war affected families at Wahalkada and Kapachchi. Subsequently, due to obvious reasons the VTC started to cater only to the youth (O/L dropouts) in the Anuradhapura district that are from families living under the poverty line.

Training courses offered by the VTC, Anuradhapura include, Welding (Arc and Gas), and Motor Mechanism. Since the inception of the VTC, three hundred and sixty eight (368) youth have successfully completed training and found jobs, locally and abroad or started self-employment that provides sustainable income for their families.  This VTC was registered under the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission of Sri Lanka (TVEC) in March 1999 (Registration No. P16/0041) and both Welder and Automobile Mechanic Courses were awarded with National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Level 3 status in November 2007 and January 2012 respectively.

SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka National Director Ananda Karunarathne said, “This facility was started as a full-fledged Vocational Training Centre and therefore, initially it was able to provide quality training to vulnerable youth. However, with the development of new technology and curricula, today, the VTC is unable to deliver up to date, training that keeps pace with modern and future technological requirements, mainly due to lack of contemporary machinery and apparatus. Re equipping the SOS-VTC, Anuradhapura with modern machinery is a timely requirement and SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka is very thankful to The Sanjiv Mendis Memorial Foundation for making this donation to improve the effectiveness of the SOS-VTC, Anuradhapura.”