Organized by the European Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (ECCSL), the awards ceremony was graced by a prestigious group of invitees including Chief Guest and Commercial Counsellor at the Embassy of Austria based in New Delhi – India, Dr. Oskar Andesner, Honorary Consul for Austria in Sri Lanka, Senaka Amarasinghe, ECCSL Board Director, Dilipan Tyagarajah and John Wilson, Director - In-house Legal Counsel. Puritas Sath Diyawara is also among the 4 projects shortlisted for the Global Energy Globe World Awards in the Water category, to be held in 16th January 2018.
“We are delighted to have this Award as an innovative CSR solution initiated and implemented by Puritas, with the participation & funding from many business sectors of the Hayleys Group that contributes to our leadership role in social responsibility as a winner of the Best Corporate Citizen award in multiple occasions”, Mr Mohan Pandithage, Chairman and CEO of Hayleys Plc, commented.
Puritas is deeply honored to have been recognized with the National Energy Globe Award Sri Lanka 2017.
This award stands as further validation of our groundbreaking approach corporate social responsibility – one that focuses on delivering the most benefit to underserved rural communities in order to revitalize them and place them on a path to a much brighter, healthier, and happier future.
I am thankful to Puritas team and all business sectors of Hayleys group for their patronage” Managing Director Haycarb PLC, Rajitha Kariyawasan stated.
Extending life-saving support to vulnerable communities across Sri Lanka’s North and North Central provinces, Hayleys’ Puritas Sath Diyawara initiative is focused on the establishment of Reverse Osmosis (RO) water currently the only known solution to mitigate the ongoing CKDu outbreak in the dry-zone.
“The success of Hayleys’ Puritas Sath Diyawara is founded on vibrant community engagement.
Therefore in accepting this award, we must also acknowledge and express our heartfelt gratitude to all our team and the dedicated community leaders who have so generously given their time and effort to support these projects across the North and North-Central provinces.” Commented Sharmila Ragunathan, Director Puritas.
Commenced in 2014, Puritas Sath Diyawara now covers 19 villages to provide over 160,000 litres of clean drinking water for over 33,000 Sri Lankans residing in water-stressed communities in the island’s dry-zone.
Having since grown to become the flagship CSR initiative of the Hayleys Group, Puritas Sath Diyawara continues to evolve, drawing on the support, resources and expertise of the highly diversified Hayleys Group.
Each project is sponsored by a Group Company, and to-date the Hayleys Group has invested over Rs, 63 million in this initiative.
It consists of formalized water distribution network through a bowser and multiple docking stations throughout the village to ensure all villagers have equal access to purified water.
Surveys are conducted on a regular basis to monitor the effectiveness of this initiative.
Additionally, the initiative also funds the construction of community centers in close proximity to the RO plants, including the establishment of knowledge hubs which includes libraries equipped with computers, internet connections, newspaper subscriptions, books, toys and activities to encourage domestic entrepreneurship in order to nurture the project into an initiative completely geared towards improving quality of life for these vital rural communities.
Under this initiative, school essentials are also provided annually to children in these villages and over 2,400 children have been provided with school items for 2018 academic year.
Photo captions : Haycarb Managing Director Rajitha Kariyawasan and Hayleys Puritas Director, Sharmila Ragunathan receiving the National Energy Globe Award Sri Lanka 2017 from Commercial Counsellor at the Embassy of Austria, New Delhi, India, Dr. Oska Andesner