Dialog Telekom Donates Computer Lab for Children of Estate Community

Dialog Telekom has donated a new computer lab for Kaloogalla Maha Vidyalaya in Pussallawa, Gampola recently. Hundreds of underprivileged children from the estate community will be immensely benefitted from this donation.

Speaking at the handing over ceremony of the computer lab, Mr. Thureiraj, Deputy Regional Director of Education (Tamil Medium) said that providing facilities to disseminate IT knowledge to the children of rural areas , where access to new technological advancements are very limited , should be highly appreciated.

“The parents of most of these children are estate workers. They are not able to provide their children with new technological facilities. Therefore, we must appreciate the initiatives taken by non government corporate bodies such as Dialog Telekom to open the doors of ICT education to such needy children of remote areas, setting aside their commercial benefits. Minister of Education has urged the need to plan for producing at least 500 skillful graduates per year from estate sector communities from the year 2012. The fulfillment of this objective will be further strengthened by this kind of Corporate Responsibility practices. We are very grateful to Dialog Telekom, who has taken a leading role in this regard” Mr. Thureiraj said.

“We are thankful to Dialog Telekom for the encouragement provided to our students via this valuable donation. This school was founded 80 years ago and for the first time in history we are receiving this kind of donation. At the same time, a student of this small school has excelled in year 5 scholarship exam for the first time and Dialog Telekom came forward to reward him with a token of appreciation. We are grateful to Dialog for providing much needed facilities to these underprivileged children” Said Mr. C.Rajendran, Principal of Kaloogalla Maha Vidyalaya.

“The Government of Sri Lanka has declared year 2009 as the year of Information Communication Technology and English. Yet IT infrastructure of Sri Lanka is mainly confined to the urban areas. Our aim is to provide novel technology to all Sri Lankans to empower and enrich their lives, irrespective of their status. This donation is another milestone in fulfilling this vision. We hope these facilities would assist the children to gain the competencies required by new knowledge era.” Said Mr. Pradeep Mahalingam, a Change volunteer from Dialog Telekom, commenting on the donation.

Several Officials of Dialog Telekom, including Mr. T. Raj Kumar, Mr. Alfiq Thajudeen, Mr. Nimal Nakandala, Ms. Viyani Almeida, Ms. Udari Malawithanthrige, Mr. Sangeeth Harshendra, Mr. Udesha Wickramanayake and Mr. Abhishek Gamage were present at the occasion.