The second-grade students of Sumedha Maha Vidyalaya in Kosgama, stand outside their brand-new toilet units along with the school’s faculty members and AmCham, Teejay and Habitat Sri Lanka’s senior management staff

The Helping Hands project, a three-year partnership between the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka and Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka, recently completed its first phase with the support of Teejay Lanka PLC. 

Positively impacting over 3000 students, the project involved the provision of three (03) toilet units each to three (03) government schools in Yatiyantota and Dehiowita in the Sabaragamuwa Province, and Homagama in the Western Province. 

Management representatives of Teejay Lanka PLC, AmCham Sri Lanka and Habitat Sri Lanka were present at the handover ceremonies, together with the students and faculty members of the respective schools, held on June 15th. 

Several hygiene awareness sessions on a range of topics, from food safety to appropriate sanitation practices, were also conducted by local public health inspectors (PHIs).  

Samadhi Weerakoon, Senior General Manager –Corporate Communication and CSR of Teejay Lanka PLC, expressing her thoughts on the Helping Hands project said, “Providing school children with proper sanitation facilities and hygiene awareness programmes will pave the way for the students to have a clean, healthy, and happy childhood. We look forward to continuing these efforts in line with our corporate CSR footprint of improving sanitation in rural communities and driving change that will impact generations to come.”

Vrai Raymond, Chief Executive Officer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka, emphasizing the importance of sanitation said, “Understanding the importance of sanitation has been key in ensuring that we work towards mitigating the adverse impacts of the lack of thereof, such as the risk of diseases & infections, absenteeism in schools, and an unclean environment. 

We look forward to implementing a long-term plan with Habitat Sri Lanka, to ensure that the students are provided with proper sanitation facilities, in line with UN SDG #6 – Clean Water and Sanitation, promoting a better world for all”.