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| Tuesday, 22 February 2005 |
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Memories beckon Hayleys to Kathaluwa's aid An enduring 127-year relationship between a rural community and a blue chip corporate will take tangible shape for a new generation when the Hayleys Group builds a new school for 500 children in Kathaluwa, Ahangama, an area devastated by December's tsunami. The primary focus of this second phase is the village of Kathaluwa, from where Hayleys Group founder Charles P. Hayley set up his business, Chas. P. Hayley & Company, in Galle in 1878.
For much of the century that followed, generations of southerners in Kathaluwa and the surrounding villages have pummeled tough coconut husks by hand to extract the coir that Hayleys added value to and exported. Kathaluwa, in the traditional coir yarn spinning belt, remains linked by economy and history to the diversified conglomerate that grew out of the business of the pioneering Englishman. And, like the people of the village, Chas. P. Hayley & Co. Ltd., also suffered losses in the tsunami, with damages estimated at Rs. 70 million. Kathaluwa's G.V.S. De Silva Primary School which suffered extensive damage is to be relocated to a new site on higher ground, where a complete new school has to be built. The Hayleys Group has pledged to build and equip a modern educational facility. The conglomerate has pledged to spend more than Rs. 58 million on the project from funds donated by its overseas business partners and well-wishers, employees and group companies. These donations have totalled Rs. 29 million to date and the Hayleys Group has matched all donations with an equal commitment, doubling the size of its relief fund to Rs. 58 million. Hayleys Chairman Rajan Yatawara who has also worked in the company's Galle office said "We feel it is most appropriate that the rehabilitation phase of our efforts should benefit the Galle region in particular." The project will encompass the building of 15 classrooms, two computer rooms with 10 computers each, the construction and equipping of a laboratory, a library, assembly hall, aesthetics hall, the principal's office, administration office, teachers' meeting room, playground, children's park and toilets, with the required utilities such as water and power supply and access roads. The Hayleys Group is also focusing attention on helping people of the area resume their livelihood. Three group companies, Chas P. Hayley & Co., Haymat Ltd. and Hayleys Exports Ltd. Which together take up a significant proportion of the coir yarn produced in the area, have distributed 100 coir yarn machines to operators who lost theirs in the tsunami. They have also donated 12.5 tons of mixed fibre to 500 people, with which they can commence work. Hayleys has in the past also helped contract producers of brown twine in the Galle area, providing them with 100 motorised twine machines. A noteworthy aspect was the training of 17 youth from the Galle area in trauma management, an initiative that contributed significantly to the success of the group's relief effort. |
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