SriLankan Airlines is continuing its support of Al Bahriya Maha Vidyalaya, the Tsunami-ravaged school in Kalmunai that the National Carrier helped rebuild last year in a Rs. 75 million project.

Chandana De Silva, Head of Corporate Communications at SriLankan, said: “SriLankan Airlines and our charity arm SriLankan Cares have made the education of children our priority in community service activities. It is our firm conviction that we must continue to provide long-term support for the schools that we have assisted.

SriLankan equipped the school with two state-of-the-art Computer Laboratories to introduce young minds to the wonders of modern technology, one for the Secondary School and the other for the Primary School. The laboratories are equipped with 42 VXL thin clients and two IBM Servers, as well as microphones, headsets and laser printers, all connected through a Local Area Network and fed with UPS power. Selected software includes MS Office products, Encarta Encyclopedia, and Maths and Science related educational software.

The National Carrier also recently provided training in computer usage for six of the school’s teachers. The four-day programme, a combination of familiarization and train-the-trainer, was carried out at the airline’s International Aviation Academy at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

SriLankan recently appointed Computerland International (Pvt) Ltd to provide full on-site maintenance and operational monitoring for a five-year period. Computerland will station a support technician on a fulltime basis at the school, to provide technical support and assist students and teachers, supplemented by weekly visits by an engineer from Colombo or Batticaloa.

The agreement was signed on 8th February at SriLankan’s corporate offices in Colombo’s World Trade Centre. Chandana De Silva (Head of Corporate Communications) and Kamal Nanayakkara (Head of IT) represented the airline, while V. Ramanah (Managing Director) and Asha Hassim (Marketing Manager) signed on behalf of Computerland.

Al Bahriya Maha Vidyalaya, a school of 1,500 students, was almost completely destroyed by the Tsunami of 26th December 2004. SriLankan teamed up with Lufthansa Technik, HelpAlliance and GTZ, and construction was completed last October.

The project provided a new three-storey building containing 18 classrooms, and rebuilt three badly damaged buildings which house another 20 classrooms. The buildings include support facilities such as a Music Room, Dance Room, Toy Room, Library, Counseling Rooms, Assembly Hall, Staff Room, a Library, and a Science Lab.

The National Carrier has built a tradition of supporting schools throughout the country. Four years ago it adopted Meepagama Jayanthi Maha Vidyalaya in the flood-stricken Ratnapura district, and completely transformed it with new buildings, scholarships and modern amenities. The continuous support of the airline raised the standard of education, and several students have even entered the University of Colombo since then.

March 05th, 2007