NDB employee volunteerism improves infrastructure in Mahiyanganaya School

Education is vital for rural transformation, and economic and ecological progress of communities. However, many schools in rural areas face some of the biggest challenges and are deficient even in basic requirements such as toilets and libraries, due to the lack of resources.

West/ginnrouwa Junior School situated in Mahiyanganaya is one such school. A majority of the students come from low income families and attend poorly equipped classes. The teachers face many practical difficulties in teaching which result in a low quality of education for the students. The majority of the students had never been to Colombo or travelled in a train.

A team from the NDB Head Office consisting of the leasing, internal audit, IT, digital financial services, OCMD, network management and shared services departments volunteered to improve the infrastructure of the school. The team assisted in improving the infrastructure of this school, including the renovation of the existing toilets, setting up a library with over 1,500 books, upgrading classrooms and donating sports equipment.

Additionally, NDB volunteers also conducted a variety of motivational workshops for the students, the school faculty and parents followed by an art competition. However, the highlight of the project for the students was when the bank volunteers organised a visit to Colombo which included a visit to the Planetarium, Colombo City Tour (including the prominent places such as the Museum and Nelum Pokuna), a Train trip from Fort to Wellawatte and the Wellawatte Beach.

NDB commenced the ‘Employee Volunteerism’ CSR initiative in 2009. As a responsible corporate citizen, NDB believes that ‘Community Involvement’ goes beyond core business activities and with an objective of creating value through employee participation, the bank encourages its employees to volunteer their time and effort to give back to the community.

Employee volunteering programmes can allow workers to feel that the work they do is not only contributing to the overall success of the company, but that it is also helping out a charitable cause that is important to them.