‘Seylan Pehesara’ - Going beyond banking to generate social wealth through school libraries

True to its promise, Seylan Bank, ‘the bank with a heart’, has certainly captured many Sri Lankan hearts throughout the years, not only by providing financial and banking solutions but also by dedicating themselves to enhance and upgrade the lives of many Sri Lankans through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

As a responsible corporate citizen of the country, Seylan bank is determined to contribute towards children’s education islandwide and nurture them to become intelligent, knowledge driven and productive citizens of the nation with a positive outlook. ‘Seylan Tikiri’ is one such pioneer product of the bank, which inculcates the savings habit in children from childhood and instils banking practices through its student-saving centres. 

Taking this further, ‘Seylan Pehesara’ library project is a value-added endeavour to this commitment by providing the children of rural areas an opportunity to explore many topics and widen their knowledge. Stemming from the bank’s strongest product, Tikiri, ‘Seylan Pehesara’ has infused social values and morals in the bank’s culture, making it beyond banking. 

With the gradual growth of a knowledge economy and increasing demand for knowledge workers in a global context reading plays a major role in imparting knowledge and innovation through imagination in the minds of children. As the future transaction tools will predominantly be ‘ideas’ and ‘thoughts’, ‘Seylan Pehesara’ will be important in guiding the children of rural villages to enter a world of opportunities
The project is structured in such a way, the bank either donates books to existing libraries or restore libraries that are in a run-down condition, in underprivileged schools islandwide. When selecting schools for this project, the bank goes an extra mile and a half to consult principals, teachers and their various stakeholders to get qualitative and rational feedback based on their real needs. In addition, this initiative gives more opportunities to students to interact closely with the bank and augment their learning experience and familiarize themselves with banking as a future prospect. The success of this project largely lies on the bank’s integral effort in shaping this project by involving the relevant stakeholders and gaining their insights and support. 

‘Seylan Pehesara’ not only fosters curriculum-based education in rural schools but also provides a total quality education by way of donating books on personal grooming, leadership skills, sports, recreational activities, aesthetics, etc., which are instrumental in nurturing well-balanced future citizens. These extra- curricular learnings gift all students a lifetime experience and enrich their lives in the long run. By upgrading and reviving the underprivileged school libraries, the project has provided access to quality information for the rural community and has connected them globally via the Internet. The project has been planned in such a way and spearheaded to reach the 100th library by first quarter of this year. 

Making this initiative an inclusive one bank collaborates with the Ministry of Education, provincial education departments, schools, principals, students, parents and other well-wishers towards accomplishing common objectives of uplifting educational standards of impoverished schools islandwide. The bank firmly counts on and appreciates the support of each and every of these stakeholders, as it helps in making this endeavour a success as same as it ensures consistency and continuity of the project.  

The project also marked its unique footsteps by establishing a library in Matale for children with special needs who are isolated and voiceless, in a manner translating doctrines into real ground value propositions. In the long run ‘Seylan Pehesara’, a highly accepted and commended project by all stakeholders, will inculcate a sense of acceptance and recognition for a multitude of underprivileged children and give them an opportunity to expose themselves to the modern world and technology, bringing hope of a better tomorrow and a 
brighter future.