The opening ceremony of the 'Ethera Sisu Diriya' which was initiated under the 'Mahajana Mehewara' CSR drives of the People's Bank was held recently at the Grand Navro Hotel in Matara under the auspices of Dr. Willie Gamage, the Governor of the Southern Province, Chairman of the People's Bank Mr. Sujeewa Rajapakse and CEO/General Manager Mr. Ranjith Kodituwakku.

'Ethera Sisu Diriya' had been launched by People’s Bank in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau, Ministry of Education, District Secretariats, Divisional Secretariats as a tribute to foreign employees who toil tirelessly to earn foreign exchange to provide a a better life for their loved ones and strengthen the economy of the country. The purpose of introducing this program was to assist their children's education in the absence of a parent, thus ensuring the child’s development into a good citizen.

Under this program, the details of those who leave for foreign employment will be shared with the People's Bank by Foreign Employment Bureau and Development Officers in District Secretariats. If such people have children of school age, the bank will coordinate with their teachers and school principals through the Ministry of Education to monitor the progress of those children. This will be done via a specially designed progress report which will be used to evaluate each child’s education, mentality and extra-curricular activities by the school. The bank reviews this report and connects with foreign employee’s families to plan for the child’s future development.

“Ethera Sisu Diriya” covers all children from Grade 1 to 13. The uniqueness of this program is that, without limiting the progress evaluation to just education, it supports the child’s extracurricular activities too. Already all school principals of Matara District have been notified through the Ministry of Education in this regard and all District Secretaries and Divisional Secretaries will be notified through the Foreign Employment Bureau. People's Bank expects to extend this program to all 24 districts in the country.

The launching ceremony of the program was attended by the Secretary - Southern Provincial Ministry of Education Ranjith Yapa, Matara District Secretary Y. Wickramasiri, Director of Education – Southern Province Nimal Dissanayake, Senior Deputy General Manager (TB & OCS) of the People's Bank Rohan Pathirage, Deputy General Manager (Personal Banking) Renuka Jayasinghe, Deputy General Manager (Channel Management) Mahinda Premanath, Asst. General Manager (Corporate Banking - 1) Nalin Perera, Matara Regional Manager I. K. Indika, Divisional Secretaries, School Principals of the area, foreign employment related officers in the district and area, Development Officers in-charge of foreign employment sections and members of families employed abroad.

Photo 1. Chairman of the People's Bank Sujeewa Rajapakse symbolically presenting a 'Ethera Sisu Diriya' progress report book to a principal. CEO/ General Manager Ranjith Kodituwakku also present.

Photo 2. Governor of the Southern Province Dr. Willie Gamage and Chairman of the People's Bank Sujeewa Rajapakse addressing the gathering.