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Lowa dinana singiththo 2009

Preparing children to face tomorrow's challenges:

Lowa dinana singiththo 2009 is an all-island school competition organized by Hatton National Bank (HNB) under the directive of the Ministry of Education to uplift the talents of schoolgoing children throughout the island.

This includes the categories of art, essay writing, short stories, speech and singing which will be held in English, Sinhala and Tamil according to the different categories represented. Lowa dinana singiththo will be held in two stages which include the district level as well as all island finals which are scheduled to be held in Colombo.

"Lowa dinana singiththo was an initiative taken last year by the bank, which saw more than 150,000 participants from 9,800 schools across the island showcasing their talents. HNB being one of the leading commercial banks in the country has always been in the forefront in a national way", Deputy General Manager - Marketing and Retail Banking of HNB Chandula Abeywickrema said. Ours is a bank that is firmly rooted towards the interests of the Sri Lankan people, where we have a strong commitment towards the nation and its people from all sectors of the society.

As a bank we also believe that our own sustainability firmly depends on the people of this country, therefore we always believe that it is our responsibility to help, nurture its future leaders. Lowa dinana singiththo is a unique opportunity for the young generation to bring out their creativity skills and in built talents in different areas such as Art, Music, Speech and Drama, and thereby help build confidence and character to face the many challenges of today's demanding world. To achieve this we have partnered with the premier education institute in the country which is the Ministry of Education.

This year with the end of the war the bank will be focusing more on the liberalized North and East areas of the country, where it hopes to receive more applications for the competition, by creating more awareness through its branches operational in these areas.

Through the Lowa dinana singiththo the bank hopes to open more avenues to identify and bring out the hidden talents of the children and provide a helping hand for these talents to be surfaced.

The closing date for applications for singing, speech and drama will be July 3, and July 17 will be the closing date for art, essay and other short stories. The prize-giving for district level winners and all-island winners will be held at the BMICH with a talent show held on October 3 to commemorate World's Children's Day.

Kent Ridge awards:

SLIM Scholarship goes to Lanka Bell

The Awards Ceremony of Kent Ridge Certificate in Customer Service was held on May 30 at the OPA, Prof. Stanley Wijesundera Mawatha, Colombo 07. Monti Digamadulla of Lanka Bell won the SLIM scholarship for the most outstanding student while Segar Abilesha of Nations Trust Bank was awarded a Distinction. Thanziza Samsudeen. Senior Customer Care Professional cum Soft Skills Trainer was the guest of honour and Dr. Malitha Wijesundera, Academic Advocate.

Program Manager Jagath Peiris, resource persons and invitees were also present at the ceremony.

ODEL opens new lingerie and swimwear section

A Lingerie and Swimwear section has been opened at Odel's flagship outlet at Alexandra Place, especially for the women in touch with their feminine and fun sides.

The store offers a wider choice of international brands and has been divided to three separate areas for Intimates, Nightwear and Beauty.

The Intimates section accommodates many European lingerie brands such as 'Steffy' from France, 'Odille' from London, 'Sixty Eight,' 'No Romeo,' 'O Lingerie,' 'After Eden' and many others. A separate display is dedicated to the 'Triumph' range.

The Nightwear section comprises exclusive collections from 'Jones New York' and 'Steffy.' It also has the Satin nightwear range 'PJ sets,' Chemises, Kimonos, Night shirts, a 100 percent cotton nightwear range. The knit nightwear collection comprises 'PJ sets,' 'Chemises,' and 'Camisoles' ranges.

"Good lingerie and swimwear are important for fashion conscious and self confident women," said Buyer for Lingerie and Swimwear at ODEL, Harshani Kuruppuarachchi. "This section is one of the most popular in the store, which is way we decided to enlarge it."

The swimwear section is four times the size of its predecessor and displays the popular swimwear brands 'YRS,' 'Nicky Nobel,' 'O Beach,' 'Elemar,' and 'Kalais'. The section also offers beach accessories like beach bags, hats, beach wraps and flip flops.

To make the shopping more exciting, the new extension includes a Nail Bar conducted by 'Nail Spa' that offers manicures and pedicures. Products from 'Body beauty' which is Odel's very own beauty product brand, the OPI nail products range and 'Toni & Guy' hair products are also available at the newly expanded section.

ComBank develops vocational skills of prison inmates

The Commercial Bank has completed a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project to help inmates of the Galle prison to enhance their vocational skills.

The CSR Trust of the bank donated five computers with all accessories to the Galle prison which accommodates 800 inmates and is the main prison of the Southern Province.

"In addition to the corrective process, the prison authorities try to provide the inmates with vocational training so that they get some experience to be employed once they are released from prison," said Chairman of the Commercial Bank Mahendra Amarasuriya.

"The computers and accessories that we donated would be helpful for the authorities to conduct effective training." The handing over of the computers to the prison took place with the participation of Amarasuriya, on the same day the new City Office branch of the bank was opened in Matara.

The Commissioner General of Prisons Vajira Wijegoonawardena and the Superintendent of Prisons - Galle Gamini Jayasinghe were also present at the event.

Janashakthi extends circle of care

Poson devotees travelling to Anuradhapura for religious observances were relieved of their anxiety due to malfunctioning vehicles, when a timely and instantaneous vehicle repair service was provided to them by Janashakthi Full Option motor Insurance.

The service was available 24 hours of the day from June 6-8 to all motorists, including those who had insured with other insurers.

K.K. Nandasena of Polgasowita and J. Karunaratne of Homagama said, "If not for Janashakthi we would have been in an extremely tight spot when our vehicles broke down in Anuradhapura.

We are deeply grateful to them for helping us, despite the fact that we are insured with other insurance companies. We will never forget this genuine act of caring from Janashakthi." ASP Traffic Division Jagath Saram said, "We are very grateful to Janashakthi for supporting our police work with this service. It has certainly eased our traffic duties during this peak period and I urged my team to support them in this highly commendable effort.

We are very happy that a private company stepped up to help us in this manner."

General Manager Sales and Marketing Ravi Liyanage said, "Vehicle breakdowns happen when least expected and usually at the most awkward moments, when competent assistance is not at hand and the helpless motorist is left either stranded in an inconvenient location or compelled to rely on incompetent mechanics."