Shoes 4 Education- for the not so privileged
The Shipper’s Academy Colombo (SAC) launched a Facebook campaign with the participation of the internet users to support extremely poor schoolchildren to own a pair of shoes to attend school.
It is understood that a large number of rural area schools have students who don’t have proper school attire to attend classes including a pair of shoes. The government gives them uniforms annually.
Shippers’ Academy Colombo CEO Rohan Masakorala said that this is a small gesture and initiative by the academy to make small children happy with a smile and to uplift the confidence/moral of our rural poor children and to encourage them to go to school.
“It all started with a small Facebook post I placed during the December ‘Christmas season’ that caught the attention of many. People started writing to me to get it organised so that they would support, so I had to come with a transparent and an acceptable mechanism to do this, so that right and deserving children got the shoes. It is complicated as size and gender differs as well as locations. Now we have sorted out the mechanism to distribute the best possible way,” said Masakorala.
“I approached Sri Lanka Army Wanni-hq for facilitation, Major General Kumudu Perera, my brother-in-law. The Army is already helping my sister through the Hemas Outreach Programme where she is doing enormous amount of work building and developing preschools in very poor areas.”
“I requested the army to list out initially about 25 schools in different divisions. We have now got 26 schools, needing 780 pairs of shoes, some schools just requesting one pair. Schools will be selected islandwide depending on the need,” he went on to say.
“The academy approached DSI group who is supporting us with vouchers and a discount to obtain vouchers. We have already collected over Rs.400,000 worth of vouchers which will be around 325 pairs of shoes where will start distributing next week onwards with the support of the Army,” Masakorala added.
“Many individuals came to assist me, the High Commissioner to Bangladesh in Sri Lanka Riaz Hamidullah took a lead role and handed over significant contribution at the outset when he saw my post. Large number of company executives and Sri Lankans living overseas too joined. It was heartening to see some who could not afford to contribute came forward to even support in a small way to kick this project first phase off the ground last December. I am very grateful to all of them,” he further said.
“The need is great, and we hope to continue this throughout the year as a continuous process. It is something that citizens and friends of Sri Lanka can get involved and help the ‘Shoes 4Education’ project. We need another 440 pairs to fulfill the first list, information will on the Facebook and the Shippers’ Academy website soon. NDB Bank has facilitated us with a special project account to collect funds, indeed it has come out as a good project and a satisfying opportunity to me too as a person who left the corporate world to educate others in the field that I know,” Masakorala remarked.
Anyone interested can go to the Facebook page ‘Shoes4 Education’ and contact us or send a mail to ceo@shippersacademy.lk to support and contribute.