Galadari empowers the youth of Bibile
The Galadari Hotel successfully ventured into a sustainable CSR project with the prime focus of empowering the youth in local communities by providing training as well as employment opportunities. The project, ‘Hospitality Training and Empowerment’ was brought to life in November 2010, and was carried out with the aim to train and offer empowerment to school leavers and unemployed youth in the city of Bibile by providing them with the basic skills and tools needed to sustain their communities and thus provide them with a new lease of life in order to make their dreams a reality. The project was channelled through Venerable Hawelwela Sunanda Chief Incumbent of the Unagolla Purana Rajamaha Viharaya, who played a vital role with his assistance and guidance.
The hotel with this purpose in mind reached out to 11 young men who were selected through a special selection process. These youth became the central point of the project where they were given the rare opportunity of learning and discovering the many facets of hotel management which was set in an actual business environment. Lengthening up to a period of one year, this training programme commenced at the Galadari Hotel, and comprised of theory as well as practical training exposure combined with detailed explanations and hands on experiences in the key areas of housekeeping, kitchen stewarding, laundry and food and beverage.
The hotel went yet another step forward to ensure that these selected trainees were well looked after by providing them with comfortable accommodation in a rented residence within close proximity to Colombo along with a transport allowance. In addition to this, the trainees were given meals, rations furniture and clothing etc., thus ensuring that their every need was met, plus they were given a reasonable allowance in the process.
Having understood the pivotal role the English language plays in today’s modern working environment, the hotel further enhanced the project by conducting a basic programme of both spoken as well as written English, thus breaking all traditional norms in basic customer interaction skills and bridging language barriers. The hotel will be continuing the project in the area of Bibile where a new team of trainees will be selected.
The Galadari Hotel through its CSR project has brought about new hope and opened doors to a new world of possibilities for the youth of Bibile. Being given the golden opportunity of training in a five-star hotel has enabled the selected youth a very trustworthy launch pad to explore new avenues in hotel management, creating new horizons to raise their standard of living not only for themselves but also their families in the process.