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Sri Lanka woos Singapore’s leisure travellers

Sri Lankan Holidays has launched a campaign to popularise Sri Lanka as a leisure destination among Singaporeans, as the Indian Ocean island looks forward to a boom in tourism with the end of its civil war.

General Manager SriLankan Holidays Amith Sumanapala said,’ “With the dawn of peace, Sri Lanka has become a perfectly safe option for tourists everywhere. It also offers superb value for money as a leisure destination, and Colombo is just three and half hours flying time from Singapore.”

The “Wonders of Sri Lanka” series by SriLankan Holidays offers five different packages featuring beaches, culture, city tours, and much, much more. The offers are valid between June 10 to August 30 and tickets should be purchased before July 20.

All the packages provide accommodation at a star-class hotel on bed and breakfast twin sharing basis, with airport transfers and entrance fees to cultural sites.

“This is yet another step in SriLankan Holidays’ primary objective to promote tourism into Sri Lanka,” said Sumanapala.

The lowest priced package offers two nights/three days stay in Colombo at the giveaway rate.

Then there’s the three nights/four days stay in the picturesque central city of Kandy which includes a city tour, visit to the famed Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic of Lord Buddha, witness the baby elephants at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage and a cultural dance show.

The Beach Tour provides four nights/five days at one of the island’s palm-fringed golden beaches at Bentota, Ahungalle or Galle on the southern coast which includes a visit to the old Dutch heritage town of Galle, a tour of a turtle hatchery, and a city tour of Colombo.

The five nights/six days Culture Tour which features a relaxing stay at the beach resort town of Negombo, another two nights in the Habarana area from where visitors will be taken to the ancient Dambulla Cave Temple, the Sigiriya Rock Fortress, and the historic Matale Aluvihare Temple, a visit to a spice garden, one night in Kandy with a city tour including its Arts and Crafts Centre, gem lapidary, and the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic of Lord Buddha, and witness a cultural dance show in the evening. On the way to Colombo the visitors get to spend time at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, before enjoying a day and night in Colombo city.

For those who want to take a whole week off, there’s the ultimate experience of a seven nights/eight days Beach and Culture Combination.

This includes one night at the Negombo beach resort, two nights in Habarana with its attractions of the Dambulla Cave Temple, Sigiriya Rock Fortress, Matale Aluvihare Temple, and spice garden.

Then visitors get one night in Kandy with a city tour including the Arts and Crafts Centre and gem lapidary, a visit to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, a cultural dance show in the evening, and a tour of the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage.

After that, there are two nights on the beaches of the island’s southern coast which includes a visit to the old Dutch heritage town of Galle, and a tour of a turtle hatchery, before getting to enjoy one night in Colombo city.

Discounted rates are available for groups of seven or more passengers.

PC House launches e-waste management initiative

PC House has devised a broad and comprehensive CSR policy to acommodate a wider expanse of community needs both within and outside its organization. The expanse of its CSR ambitions is seen in terms of the organizational values and employee-centered well-being programs of its internal CSR policy and the company’s CSR external policy, which focuses on community service projects in the areas of public education, health and safety.

SHM Rishan

PCH’s internal CSR policy is founded on a three-pronged approach to inculcate a continuous and developing sense of social responsibility among its employees.

The approach titled “The 3Cs” is founded on the promotion of Conversation, Care and Cleanliness among staff. The employee-focused culture in the company permeates its external CSR programs as well, designed to not only reach out to communities across the country but also promote a work-life balance among its staff and an opportunity for them to build camaraderie among themselves and heightened sensitivity to the needs of communities.

The company has also helped teachers enhance their potential and benefits of IT in the classroom, such as the awareness-building workshop of the IT syllabus for GCE O/L teachers in the Colombo district organized by the Sri Lankan Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS) Section E1 and the University of Colombo, School of Computing (UCSC).

PCH’s attention in CSR has lately expanded to mitigate the impact of environmental problems in Sri Lanka. These projects include environmentally friendly motherboards and improved power efficiency through Gigabyte technology.

With Dell, PC House now plans to implement an e-waste management system that would permeate all levels of IT experts, service providers, and manufacturers in the country.

The e-waste management initiative will focus on small changes such as including labels on electronic items that assist recycling to promoting larger changes in the local IT industry such as ensuring that computer components and peripherals are recyclable and the product cycle of IT products are designed in a manner that would encourage a recycling infrastructure among consumers and users.

On their reason for collaborating with Dell, Chairman of PC House and its group PCH Holdings SHM Rishan said, “Dell leads the industry by being the first to offer a free worldwide recycling program for consumers.

The company also has an effective waste-management policy that helps to prevent the unauthorized dumping of electronic waste in developing countries by requiring that equipment be tested and certified as “working” prior to export and expanded their definition of electronic waste to include all non-working parts, irrespective of material composition. Dell also announced recently that they ban the export of electronic waste to developing countries.

So it seemed fitting that in bringing this much needed change to how the local IT industry and users treat the environment, we team up with a company like Dell that has such a successful work-in-practice model from which we too could draw ideas and solutions.”

PC House plans to implement the new e-waste management initiative in Sri Lanka before the end of the year. They intend to dispose Dell PC waste in an environmentally responsible manner using stringent, global recycling guidelines.

CCF changes corporate brand name to ChildFund

CCF Sri Lanka, in line with the new global strategy by its parent organization, announced a change in its corporate brand name and logo to ChildFund Sri Lanka on June 26, 2009.

CCF Inc, which is the parent organization of the NGO will now be known as ChildFund International, USA.

The new name better aligns CCF with ChildFund Alliance, a group of 12 organizations, which includes ChildFund International, USA, in order to further facilitate partnership to improve the lives of children in need and their families in 56 countries. CCF Inc, now known as ChildFund International, USA is the founding member of this alliance of NGOs.

Having an unified name increases opportunities for collaborative activities, including expanded programming and fund raising. In addition, it will help open new doors in terms of strategic partnerships so that more children are reached.

Speaking on the significance of this, National Director, ChildFund Sri Lanka Guru Naik said, “The name change to ChildFund Sri Lanka is part of a larger global strategy, which will help us to further boost old relationships and foster new one’s, helping us with our unwavering mission and strong commitment to continue to create positive change in the lives of children.

It takes global perspective and collaborative effort in order to substantially impact the issues of poverty that are facing children today.

Dialog TV launches KidsCo

KidsCo, the international children’s channel owned by leading media companies NBC Universal, Cookie Jar Group and Corus Entertainment Inc., has secured an agreement with Dialog TV for the channel to be aired in Sri Lanka.

KidsCo offers three programing zones; for preschool, kids between 6-10 years and the family. The programs have been designed and developed to fit diverse lifestyles, featuring great animated and live action content plus movies.

These include The Wiggles, New Adventures of Madeline, Sabrina, Tracy Beaker, Dennis the Menace, The Magic School Bus and original KidsCo programing including art shows and Jass Time.

“Dialog TV takes immense pleasure in joining hands with KidsCo, one of the best edutainment channels for children the world over,” said Chief Executive Officer of Dialog Television Nushad Perera. “As Sri Lanka’s premier satellite infotainment service provider, we are committed to offer high-quality programing to our subscribers across all ages, particularly children.

We take special interest in offering children’s programs that facilitate the growth and development of young minds,” Perera said.

KidsCo will be added to subscribers on Dialog TV’s premium package and for Set Plans.

KidsCo’s launch in Sri Lanka is an important milestone in the channel’s brand roll-out and it is now available in Asian territories including Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand, Korea, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mongolia and Taiwan. KidsCo Managing Director, Paul Robinson, said:

“We are delighted to introduce KidsCo to Sri Lanka. Children in the region will now have access to a schedule full of entertaining and educational programing which is endorsed by parents and carers.

It is our choice of appropriate and learning-based programing which makes KidsCo an attractive proposition to our affiliates - we look forward to working with Dialog TV in building the KidsCo brand in Sri Lanka.”