Sunshine Holdings PLC sets CSR focus on Education and Healthcare sectors

Sunshine Holdings PLC has focused its Corporate Social Responsibility projects in the education and healthcare sectors and inititated significant projects through the year. The group’s CSR manager along with the HR heads of the Group are leading this effort, with active participation from many employees.

Group Managing Director, Vish Govindasamy commented “an integral part of our vision is to be a role model coporate citizen and respected employer and our core values of being socially responsible and contributing to nation building drive our CSR commitments in these key sectors”

Shyam Sathasivam, Director Sunshine Holdings Plc presenting the cheque to Nick Nicolaou, Chairman CBB

In the education sector, the Group recently donated Rupees One Million to the Council for Business with Britain (CBB) which has been working through the British Council on the English Language Teaching (ELT) project intended to upgrade the English skills among the teachers in the rural areas.

The initiative would help improve the quality of English teaching practices in schools as English, being a link language, is essential in this arena. This funding will be targeted towards teachers in the Upcountry areas, where the group subsidiaries plantations are located, as a community improvement project. The group’s plantations subsidiary, Watawala Plantations PLC, has participated in significant projects to build skills in these areas, and has been successfully running its own vocational training center for disabled children of its plantation associates for over a decade.

In the healthcare sector, the Group has donated intra-ocular lenses, consumables and medication to 335 needy patients in the North & East for cataract surgeries for the National Secretariat of Vision 2020, a project designed as a part of the implementation of National Eye Care Programme. This project is endorsed by the Ministry of Health to prevent and control avoidable blindness as a part of national health system. Cataract has become one of the priority disease areas identified in the National Eye Care Programme for intervention.

They have donated over Rs 800,000 so far and continue to support this initiative. The group’s healthcare subsidiary, SBL Ltd., has supported several medical camp activities across the country and is also a major contributor for Continuous Medical Education programs to healthcare professionals.

Sunshine Holdings PLC is a diversified conglomerate with interests in Healthcare, Plantations, FMCG, Packaging, Tourism, Telecom and Power. Beginning with the healthcare business in 1967, the group has built strong businesses over the last forty five years, including partnering with the Tata Group in 1992 to form a joint venture in Plantations sector. Group subsidiaries include SBL Ltd, Watawala Plantations PLC, Sunshine Packaging, Sunshine Travels & Tours, Sunshine Energy and Healthguard Pharmacy.