Uda Mattala – HSBC Library Project

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Mr Jayasinghe

After Kiula School (see earlier post) we travelled about an hour to Uda Mattala School.

This school is by the new Southern Airport but it has not benefited from the connection and also needs a lot of repairs.

It has a very dynamic Principal and he was a great help to us including the night before the opening ceremony when we had to put up a big jungle mural in the library, which covered one wall.

Unfortunately it only arrived late in the evening after being held up in customs.

It meant that Mr Teddy and I did not get any sleep before we went out to meet our guests from HSBC the following morning.

But we were very happy because the libraries looked great and everyone enjoyed the speeches, the singing and dancing.

Like Kiula School, HSBC paid to completely renovate the library building at Uda Mattala.

Both Kiula and Uda Mattala also got a new TV and DVD player.

Kiula School – HSBC Library Project

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Mr Jayasinghe

For the second year running SRI is proud to have worked with the international bank HSBC on library renovation projects.

The first two libraries in the project were at Kiula and Uda Mattala (see next post) schools and the opening ceremonies were held on February 21st and attended by HSBC’s Sri Lankan CEO Mr Nick Nicolau.

He bought a minibus full of HSBC employees with and the children were very happy that the HSBC team read stories to each class.

Our first stop was Kiula school, which is inland from Galle on the road to Hambantota. The school is over 100 years old and in need of a lot of repair.

It was recommended to us by Mr Piyasena, the Zonal Director of Education in Hambantota.

HSBC kindly paid to completely re-furbish the library. The work included putting in new glass windows, a door, wiring as well as re-plastering, painting and re-decorating the entire room. The Bank also bought a lot of new books which we transported from Colombo.

After Kiula, we travelled about one hour to Uda Mattala School.

HSBC Book Sale

Posted on February 15, 2013 by mark

In a selling effort that would have made The Apprentice’s Lord Sugar proud, a group of “barrow barkers” shifted 50 boxes of books for SRI one lunchtime outside the bank’s canteen in Canary Wharf.

Stiff competition between Sanjoy Biswas and Barry Childe to bag the title of best salesman meant that every single book was sold on the day raising a total of £1,200 including a subsequent donation.

The high quality books were donated by children’s publisher, Walker Books, which means that all proceeds have gone directly to SRI.

Once again, a big thanks to Fiona Macdonald for the organising the donation and to Sanjoy, Barry, Desiree Clark-Noble (marketing) and Russell Seddon (photographer and crowd booster) for giving up part of their working day to raise funds for us.