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American Express partners SriLankan Airlines

American Express, the credit card acquired and issued solely by Nations Trust Bank in Sri Lanka partnered with SriLankan Airlines to offer an unmatched value proposition for their valued Cardmembers.

(From Left) Ramzia Preena, Executive e-Commerce Operations at SriLankan, Kapila Bandara, Chief Manager, Alternate Channels at NTB, an official from the Home Ministry, Amith Sumanapala, General Manager SriLankan Holidays and MICE, Renuka Fernando, DGM Consumer Banking at NTB, Shyana Wijeratna Sales and Marketing Manager with Charini Wijesinghe, eCommerce Executive from SriLankan at the weekly draw.

Having commenced last month, all Cardmembers who book their tickets online will stand the chance to have their airfare wiped out completely. American Express officials said that a winner will be picked each week until the end of August.

Online booking through the Sri Lankan airlines site www.srilankan.aero has become a safe and reliable form of planning overseas travel with payments facilitated through the American Express Card offering enhanced security and value additions, said Chief Manager Cards and Consumer Assets at Nations Trust Bank PLC Lewie Diasz.

“We are delighted to extend this benefit to our Cardmembers with the weekly wipe out draw, where 12 lucky Cardmembers stand the chance to have their airfare refunded,” he said.

Rizan Ameen was selected as the winner for the first week of June, with his ticket to Male being refunded. Kandiah Vinayagamoorthy was the winner for the second week of June, with his return ticket to London being refunded.

Winners will be notified individually by the Bank.

LEGO educational toys now in Sri Lanka

Lego is known to children as the most used educational toy for over 70 years. Lego, described by the British Association of Toy Retailers the `best toy of the 20th century’, built its presence in Sri Lanka “brick-by-brick”, said General Manager Kiddies and Toys International Neil Jayawardena.

He said although Lego had been in Sri Lanka since 1990s, it has had a low level of visibility. However, after Kiddies and Toys International (Pvt) Ltd, took over Lego’s authorized distributorship in Sri Lanka since 2008, the company has strived to enhance and build on Lego’s solid reputation as safe, educational and creative toys for children.

He said, “kids are like sponges. They are quick to absorb. But the similarity ends there.

While sponges absorb, they are laden before long, soak up day to day experiences and when the right mindsets are instilled, they thrive.

That’s why it is important for parents to select toys intelligently during the formative years of their children. In an ever-increasing pressure cooker environment to foster early education upon children, playtime is often seen as a ‘waste of time. Having access to simple building toys allows them to put into practice their early cognitive skills of recognition, creativity, and hand eye movements in a carefree, unregimented atmosphere”.

Across the world, Lego has been known and trusted for generations of parents not only for its ability to inspire children but also for durability and long lasting aspects of the LEGO toys.

Usually, a child can continue to play with them through the teen years. Lego is an investment that can be passed on from one child to the next and even from one generation to the other.

“ There are product lines for all ages - starting from the youngest children whose needs are catered for by the Duplo Range together with standard range. Playtime is a highly integral part of a child’s developmental activities allowing room for creativity, discovery and exploration.

In aspects such as shape and colour recognition , all Lego sets are designed to integrate several different shapes and sizes, helping children recognize not only differences among various pieces but similarities as well. Building blocks are indestructible and can be stacked sorted and arranged in endless configurations.

In addition, alternating colours or patterns during the building process aids in noticing distinctions in colour patterns as well as design. Lego blocks range in colours and sizes from the large for very young toddlers, to the small pieces and sets designed with certain projects in mind.

Lego aids in developing hand and eye coordination - stacking blocks and experiencing them tumbling over or choosing which blocks to inter-connect, helps develop excellent hand-eye coordination.

Twenty-one schools participate:

Wall painting contest Instills patriotism

About 200 students from 21 leading schools in Colombo participated in a wall painting competition in May to reflect the patriotism of the country whilst also combating the issue of wall abuse seen commonly throughout the Island.

Cash prizes were awarded to St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya by Secretary of Defence, Public Security and Law and Order, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

The competition was organized by the Ministry of Defence together with the Sri Lanka Police and Triad Ad, and was titled Abhimanawath Ratak Kara Sisu Bithu Sithuwam, where the students were assigned three themes under which they presented their paintings, namely how Sri Lanka was united in the past, the affect on Sri Lanka during the war and how they see Sri Lanka to be in the future.

The students themselves were involved in coming up with the designs for the paintings, whereby almost 10 students from each school were chosen to represent their alma mater and paint on the walls of the Racecourse - opposite Royal Collage in Colombo, creating a collective mural that convey messages of patriotism.

Secretary of Defence, Public Security and Law and Order, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, speaking at the Prize Distribution Ceremony said that the rationale behind this campaign was that they wanted to take one step further from usual campaigns and actually take action on instilling patriotism in the future generation whilst also caring for the environment.

“We want to do more by asking the children of our country to take more specific steps in contributing to care for unity whilst also protecting the environment by doing various other activities.”

“The mural is going to be kept for years, by which time new students will be painting murals to raise awareness about peace and unity.

This is our way of building a sense of patriotism in our students so as whenever they pass by the walls, they can look at the murals which would make them want to play their part for peace,” said Joint Managing Director of Triad Dilith Jayaweera when explaining the objectives of the campaign.

Cash prizes were awarded to the winners with St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya - the winning school with Rs. 100,000, First Runner-up Meusaeus College with Rs. 50,000 and Second Runner-up Ananda College winning Rs. 25,000 - all of which were contributed under the proud patronage of People’s Bank Sisu Udana who was the main sponsor for the initiative.

Ole Thibahata Cash promotion

Ole Marketing (Pvt) Ltd., bottlers and distributors of the Ole Range of carbonated soft drinks, Pepsi, Mirinda and 7up introduced a consumer promotion in May 2009 offering millions in instant cash prizes.

The promotion titled Thibahata Cash offers cash prizes ranging from Rs. 50 to Rs. 100,000. Within one month thousands of instant cash prize winners have emerged across the island.

Amongst them Mrs. K.D. Rupawathi of Padukka and Lahiru Sampath of Bulathsinghala were the lucky winners.

Chief Executive Officer of Ole Marketing Anil De Silva in the presence of Marketing Director, Ms. Dulanee Weerackody, Director Sales, U.K. Kumarasiri, Factory Manager, N. Manoharan, Finance Manager R. Shankar and Agency representatives presented the prize money to the winners.

“Over the years, the popularity of Ole range of Carbonated Soft Drinks has increased.

Thus, we wanted to reward the loyal consumers through a novel promotion that would address the need of our consumers during difficult times.

The idea for the promotion was based on a key consumer insight,” said De Silva.

Thibahata Cash is a unique promotion. We are indeed overwhelmed with the response and the promotion will be extended up to July 31, 2009,” said De Silva.

The Ole range of carbonated soft drinks consists of Ole Cream Soda, Ole Ginger Beer, Ole Zingo, Ole Arshik, Ole Apple, Ole Nelli, Ole Soda and Ole Plus, the recently introduced energy drink.

Union Assurance empowers employees

Against the backdrop of the economic crisis, it is imperative in the highly competitive insurance industry to be very resilient and alert whilst also being extremely enterprising and resourceful in order to maintain and increase growth, said the General Manager - Human Resources of Union Assurance PLC (UA) Brigadier Rohan Jayasinghe.

“We believe that our employees are our most valued asset. It goes without saying that the success of the company is directly attributed to them - hence, their importance!” he said.

Suranjith Godagama

UA has a unique culture which has been created, fostered and fine-tuned over a period of time on a regular basis. Jayasinghe explains that as a result of this approach, the company has been able to attract many “top guns” and function in conjunction with its vision and mission statements.

“We believe that the employee has to be provided with a rewarding career. What we provide at UA certainly isn’t a job opportunity; it is a total career,” said Jayasinghe. To reinforce this, UA provides structured training, development and necessary exposure from the very inception.

Jayasinghe said: “We strive to maintain the philosophy of UA being a great place to work. We believe that creating a great place to work is simply the right thing to do.

We put people at the centre of the operating model and allow them to progress.” Another crucial aspect in the HR realm at UA is the performance appraisal system.

The company strictly follows a performance-based assessment system and the strategy is communicated to all stakeholders, with every member expected to endeavour to achieve their individual goals - and in turn, corporate goals.

UA also encourages its staff to pursue higher educational programs and assists them via a professional examinations assistance scheme. Transparency - a hallmark at UA - is ensured in all aspects, especially via communications.

According to Asst. General Manager - Training and Development Suranjith Godagama, UA has a sales force that comprises over 3,000 personnel. “We are committed to moulding practising professionals on the 3Cs - character development, competencies development and culture - to give the best to our customers whilst safeguarding the company’s interest and uplifting their personal and professional life,” he said.

Commenting on character development, Godagama notes that “people first buy people, before they buy products. The character of the sales person comes first. To build character, we should first find the right people.”

In the area of competencies development, UA’s Training and Development arm “has a well-accepted, internal competency certification process and proficiency grading system, which grades personnel on performance and competencies,” said Godagama.

UA is member of the Life Insurance Marketing Research Association (LIMRA) of USA and all the training programmes are developed based on the world’s best practices.

Training for 310 Gateway teachers in Kandalama

Gateway Colleges Colombo, Kandy, Negombo and Bambalapitiya held their 13th Annual teacher training workshop at the Heritance Kandalama in Dambulla from June 26-28. This year’s training included two half day sessions.

The first was an out bound training that included many activities in team building, leadership and problem solving.

Three hundred and ten Gateway teachers attended a three-day residential workshop at the Heritance Kandalama.

The second session included training on “Understanding the Adolescent” and “Towards Developing an Effective Teacher” by Professor C. Kariyawasam and Professor Marie Perera of the University of Colombo and a special session for Primary Teachers on Teaching and Learning conducted by the former Director of Primary Education of the Ministry of Education Dr. Kamala Peiris.

Provision of learning of the highest global standards while retaining the culture of the land was the raison d’etre for the establishment of Gateway College in 1997.

Gateway College stands out among the international Schools in Sri Lanka as it follows the English national curriculum in its entirety from the Foundation Level to the Advanced Level for students of Sri Lanka and other nationalities.

With state-of-the-art facilities and a guarantee of not more than 25 students to a class, Gateway assures the best for every student. Gateway enjoys accredited teaching centre status from Edexcel - UK, Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) and NCC Education - UK, enabling the school to conduct all examinations in-house.

While achieving excellence in academic as well as co-curricular fields, students have thus lived up to the expectations of the founders by developing into wholesome personalities. The program of study in the Foundation Stage as set out by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority of United Kingdom incorporates six aspects of learning for children of 2 1/2 to five years of age.

They are communication, language and literacy, mathematical development, creative development, physical development, personal, social and emotional development and knowledge and understanding of the world.

The History and Geography curriculum in all three Key Stages has a Sri Lankan component introduced such that the students learn about their own country in addition to Europe and the rest of the world. Religion and Tamil Language are taught as subjects in the primary school while Sinhala Language is taught right up to the GCE Ordinary Level.

ABC Trade and Investments relocates

ABC Trade and Investments (Pvt) Ltd, relocated its head office to their own building at Bandaranayakepura Road, Rajagiriya.

The Chief Executive Officer of ABC Trade and Investments (Pvt) Ltd A. Jayaseelan told the opening ceremony, “We do business in the trade names of re-new station, target officestore and idea which has a diverse interest of business in the ICT industry and Imaging Technology.

Starting commercial business in 2004 with six employees the company had grown to 60 employees by 2009 with the growth in business and staff the company realized the necessity of a larger work area where it can house all its functions under a single roof. We are proud to be at our own building today.

As the authorized distributors for Print-rite printer consumables we sell Ink Cartridges, Laser Toners, Re-fill Kits and Ribbons for hp, Epson, Canon, Lexmark, Brother and other international brands of printing machines.

We are the authorized distributors for Verbatim optical and storage media, the brand that has built the reputation as the world’s No. I storage media both in market share and quality.

We sell a range of products such as CDs, DVDs, Mo Media, USB Pen Drives, Flash Memory and Micro SD Cards. While retailing these products through all our Target Officestore outlets we also have a good network of dealer channels.”

He said “Our Re-new station is a state-of-the-art German/US inkjet and Laser cartridge recycling technology which guarantees the highest print quality at a very low cost while assuring the absolute safety of the printer.

We have five Re-new station outlets for ink cartridge recycling. The more complex toner recycling facility is housed in this new building, where customers can visit and observe the technology and quality standards adapted in toner cartridge remanufacturing.

As we have a very large customer base of printer users, for their convenience we have also set up a repair centre with highly qualified technicians.”

ABC Trade and Investments (Pvt) Ltd., manages Re-new station, Target Officestore and Idea outlets which are located in convenient locations at Liberty Plaza, Unity Plaza and STC Nawam Mawatha Colombo, Negombo and Kandy, and the new head office showroom at Rajagiriya.

Janashakthi’s dengue awareness campaign

Janashakthi carried out an intensive campaign in the Southern province to create public awareness of the causes and spread of dengue, which has proved very virulent in the South. The program was carried out under the auspices of the Regional Director of Health Services.

The campaign was carried out at villages and leading schools in the Matara district covering the Akuressa, Matara, Malimbada, Kodagoda and Elpitiya towns and their environs, with the support of their respective PHIs (Public Health Inspector) and the Matara and Malimbada pradeshiya sabhas.

Awareness was created through presentations given by the PHIs at various schools and villages, which were supported by videos provided by the Ministry of Health on the causes and effects of the disease and on the need for its prevention and ultimate eradication.

Shramadana campaigns were also organised at Matara Rahula College and Sujatha Vidayala during which the inhabitants were exhorted to keep their premises clean and warned of penalties if they failed to do so.

Video presentations were held during the day at schools and at night at key points that functioned as public meeting places in the towns and their surrounding villages, also served to promote and increase awareness of the disease.

Mobile vans branded with banners to alert the public to keep their environment clean, announced the date and place that these video presentations would be held and cautioned them to keep their premises clean, warning them of on-going health inspections that would impose penalties on those who did not comply.

In the opinion of Senior PHI Akuressa, P.A Premaratne and PHI, Akuressa KLKK Dias, “this exercise by Janashakthi is a very thoughtful and timely one. We had the material about dengue but lacked the resources to take it to the people.

Janashakthi has performed a very vital function as facilitator of this massive awareness creation exercise and we are deeply grateful to them.

Ravi Liyanage, GM Sales and Marketing said “As a part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) we thought it was timely and necessary for Janashakthi to lend a helping hand, especially to the southern region where dengue has become a burning health issue.

The success of the campaign could be attributed to the fact that it was done jointly with the support of the Regional Director of Health Services, Public Heath Inspectors and Pradeshiya Sabhas.

Sampath Bank strengthens Bancassurance partnership with Eagle Insurance

Executive Director /Chief Executive Officer - Sampath Bank Harris Premaratne, exchanging the partnership agreement with Managing Director - Eagle Insurance PLC Deepal Sooriyaarachchi

Sampath Bank PLC and Eagle Insurance PLC, have renewed their bancassurance partnership facilitating greater benefits and convenience to their customers.

Eagle Insurance PLC is backed by the strength of Aviva - a global giant in the insurance industry and NDB Bank in Sri Lanka.

The partnership offers Sampath Bank customers the convenience of accessing General and Life Insurance products of Eagle Insurance via over 116 Sampath Bank branches islandwide.

This will give them access to a range of insurance solutions for investment and financial protection. Sampath Bank is renowned for their continuous efforts which seek to innovate and bring in comfort and convenience to their valued customers through all their products and services. This partnership offers greater convenience to customers who require innovative insurance solutions to meet their diverse needs.

Chevron rewards environment conscious students

Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC, as part of their school Haritha Gamana environmental program, conducted an essay competition to encourage students to contribute ideas on ways to preserve the environment for future generations.

It was organized for students of Mahanama College, Prince of Wales, Moratuwa and Princess of Wales, Moratuwa on ‘The impact of solid waste on our environment and our responsibility as students to curtail it.’

“We firmly believe in inculcating good practices at a very young age to help them evolve into more responsible citizens.”

We feel such programs will help develop these positive influences in them and the larger society through their family members, friends and relatives,” said Managing Director, CEO, Kishu Gomes.

The Haritha Gamana program was introduced by Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC as a means of reaching out to the community in a different way to promote better health, environment and safety practices amongst the younger generations.

The program focuses on changing the mindset of Children to become more safety and health conscious and care for the environment.

Mahanama College, St. Paul’s Milagiriya, Prince of Wales, Moratuwa and Princess of Wales, Moratuwa are involved in the Haritha Gamana program.

However, the organisation hopes to introduce this concept to other schools around the country.