Commercial Bank of Ceylon has announced a partnership with Mother Sri Lanka (MSL), a non-profit organization to fund ‘Project RUN’, which is the only program in the country that promotes the concept of being a ‘Responsible Citizen’ among school children.
The Bank’s funding will go towards a competition launched island-wide to encourage students to design projects that help uplift life and enrich communities across the country. The scope includes selecting the best projects of three allisland winners as well as nine provincial winners. They will be announced at a grand awards ceremony to be held in April 2022. Around 75,000 students from 1,500 schools are expected to participate in the Project RUN, which is named after the acronyms of three components: Responsible citizenship, Unity, and National Pride.
Launched to promote responsible citizenship and citizen engagement, the MSL Project RUN has already implemented 1,400 projects and is a tried and tested program, which has been sustained for over eight years with the approval of the Ministry of Education.
Commercial Bank’s CSR Trust is supporting the 2021-22 edition of the program, also known as RUN Stage IV.
Commenting on Commercial Bank’s latest commitment to the community, S Renganathan, Managing Director, Commercial Bank stated, “Commercial Bank is no stranger to empowering school children through its CSR initiatives that promote IT literacy and mastery of the STEM subjects on a national scale. With this partnership, we are privileged to support an effort to mold young minds to be more socially-conscious so that they grow up to be well-rounded citizens that contribute to the community both through their skills and a sense of national responsibility.”
Commenting on the partnership, Dr Janaki Kuruppu, Chairperson, Mother Sri Lanka, stated: “As citizens of this country, we must acknowledge that we have a long way to go in developing the concept of responsible citizenship. How many times have we noticed someone abusing the free health system or the free education system in our country, or in much simpler terms, noticed with sadness how someone is misusing a public toilet, a government office, or a public transport facility with callous disregard to the facility or public funds? We at Mother Sri Lanka (MSL) feel that as the country is gaining material development, there is a dire need to develop the feeling of responsibility among our citizens to appreciate the resources given to us. Therefore, we have started this “attitude change” endeavor among children in Grades six to 12 under Mother Sri Lanka Project RUN.”
Commercial Bank was ranked in the Business Today’s Top 30 corporates and conglomerates in the country.
