Ranaviru children get scholarship awards

Ninety-eight children of war heroes of the Sri Lanka Armed Services and Police received educational assistance scholarships Monday.

The scholarships’ award initiated under the Ranaviru Dudaru scholarship program by the Defence Ministry Seva Vanitha Unit was held for the 6th successive session at the Defence Services College, Colombo.

The event was held under the patronage of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Awarding of scholarships was made considering three categories of educational levels: students from grade-1 to 5, grade-6 to 9 and grade 10 to 13. The selected students were eligible for scholarships worth Rs 20,000, Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000.

The scholarship program was started under the direction of MOD Seva Vanitha Unit Chairperson Ayoma Rajapaksa in 2009 with assistance from the Bank of Ceylon, initially facilitating 14 Ranaviru children with scholarships.

Since, its inception the ‘Ranaviru Dudaru Scholarship’ program has provided educational assistance to over 1000 such students.

MOD SVU Deputy Chairperson Indu Rathnayake, SLA SVU Chairperson Manjulika Jayasuriya, SLN SVU Chairperson Malathi Samarasinghe, SLAF SVU Chairperson Nelum Goonathilake, Sri Lanka Police SVU Chairperson Asha Balasooriya including Defence Services College Director Major Gen (Rtd) R K P Ranaweera were among those present.