Nipunika Ruhunage – Manager-Corporate Partnerships, Kapila Gunwardhana – Director-National Youth Care, Gayantha Dalpadado– Assistant Director-Head of Fund Development and Communication, Divakar Ratnadurai- National Director- SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka, Gany Subramaniam – Chief Executive Officer, Allianz Insurance Lanka Limited, Mangala Bandara, Chief Marketing Officer, Allianz Insurance Lanka Limited, Rienzie De Silva – Assistant Manager, Market Management, Allianz Insurance Lanka Limited and Annesista Jeyakanthan – Executive – Corporate Communications, Allianz Insurance Lanka Limited.

Allianz Insurance Lanka Limited (Allianz Lanka) joined hands with SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka to empower youth with essential IT skills under the ‘Shape the World of Tomorrow’ program. 

The program is part of Youth Can! – SOS Children’s Villages’ global partnership for youth employability – that strives to equip young care leavers with the tools they need to transition to independence and find decent work.

Under this partnership, the insurer will be providing 100 youth between 14 – 19 years of age from 6 SOS Family Care and SOS Family Strengthening programs across the island, with access to globally recognized International Computer Driving License (ICDL) programme by February 2023. Allianz Lanka had recently won the Allianz Social innovation Fund worth €10,000 offered by Allianz SE and will be utilizing it for this.

The two parties signed the formal agreement for this programme at the SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka national office in Piliyandala recently. Several representatives from Allianz Lanka and SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka including Gany Subramaniam, Chief Executive Officer, Allianz Insurance Lanka Limited; Mangala Banadara, Chief Marketing Officer, Allianz Insurance Lanka Limited and Divakar Ratnadurai, National Director, SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka were present at this event.

“Youth empowerment remains one of the key focus areas of Allianz’s community outreach efforts around the world. In line with that, we are excited to partner with SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka yet again and help them take the ICDL program to more young adults across the island,” said Gany Subramaniam, Chief Executive Officer, Allianz Insurance Lanka Limited. “Helping them get trained and gain a globally recognized certification that is supported by governments, computer societies, international organizations and commercial corporations alike, we believe that this will go a long way in supporting them in successfully managing the transition from school to independent adulthood.”

“We would like to thank Allianz Lanka for partnering with us and supporting our youth empowerment initiatives,” said Mr. Divakar Ratnadurai- National Director of SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka. “The ‘Shape the World of Tomorrow’ program uses Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to foster education and self-development among children and youth of SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka. This is part of our wider ‘Digital Villages’ strategy which provides children, young people and caregivers with digital literacy training and access to ICT resources to support education, employability, training and capacity building.”