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Ceylinco policyholders on 'Savari'

Around 200 Sri Lankans from all parts of Sri Lanka came together in Singapore recently at a fun-filled four-day family holiday courtesy of Ceylinco Life, the country's leading life insurer.

The all-expenses-paid excursion was the conclusion of the fifth edition of Ceylinco Life's 'Family Savari' programme, which rewards policyholders and Ceylinco Life Retirement Plan holders annually.

In April this year, 15 Ceylinco Life policyholders and their family members, a total of 60 people, flew to China for an all-expenses paid holiday in Beijing, as part of the Family Savari programme.

Thereafter, another 2000 people representing 500 policyholders and their family members spent a day of thrills and spills at the theme park in Avissawella.

The visit to Singapore from May 25- 28 included a city tour, visits to Chinatown, the esplanade, botanical gardens, the fountain of wealth, a laser show at Marina Bay, a tour of Sentosa including cable car rides, a visit to Images of Singapore, Underwater World, and Dolphin lagoon, the Song of the Sea show, Crane Dance show and shopping. Policyholders and their families were provided with 4-star hotel accommodation and all meals.

In all, 2,260 people benefitted from the 5 edition of Ceylinco Life's Family Savari programme, taking the total number of people rewarded since the inception of the promotion beyond 11,000. "The Family Savari programme is unique in concept and scale in Sri Lanka's insurance industry," Ceylinco Life Director and Deputy CEO Thushara Ranasinghe said.

"It is by far the biggest and most logistically challenging rewards programme undertaken by a company in this sector in Sri Lanka, and is distinctive in its emphasis on promoting family bonding and harmony between diverse groups of people."

The promotion is intended to generate greater awareness of, and interest in, life insurance in market segments as yet unprotected through insurance, reward existing policyholders for keeping their policies active and to provide an incentive to others to revive and maintain their policies. It runs from July to December each year, during which all active long term Ceylinco Life policyholders as well as holders of Ceylinco Life Retirement Plans can earn multiple winning chances.

Independently rated as one of Sri Lanka's most valuable brands, Ceylinco Life has more than 850,000 lives covered by active policies and has been the market leader in Sri Lanka's long term insurance sector for the past eight years. The company is acknowledged as the benchmark for innovation in the local insurance industry for its work in product research and development, customer service and professional development.

Charter House celebrates 21 years

Charter House International and VingCard Elsafe celebrated 21 years of working together at VingCard's regional conference in Vietnam this month. Charter House was the first to introduce electronic mag stripe card locking solutions to the 5-star hotels in the country and has been supplying VingCard's security products as part of its product portfolio since 1991. Charter House will be among the first companies to offer VingCard's new range of electronic safes, door locking solutions and energy management systems, which were launched at the conference in Ho Chi Minh City.

For 21 years, Charter House International (Pvt) Ltd., has been amongst the leading providers of products and services for the building and industrial market segments, especially the hospitality sector, with an impressive product portfolio from some of the world's leading manufacturers.

As specialists in bathware solutions, Charter House has been a formidable leader throughout with power house brands such as Grohe, lnda, Bravat and Presto, whilst also serving the industrial segment with exclusive brands such as Tokheim, VingCard, Liquid Controls, Piusi and many others.

Since revolutionizing the hospitality industry in 1979 with hotel security solutions, VingCard Elsafe has continued to lead the market by continuously introducing new innovations to the industry. VingCard Elsafe is dedicated towards providing electronic security solutions to the hospitality industry and facilities where people sleep away from home, and is recognized as the established worldwide leader within the industry.

Charter House has maintained a dominant position primarily due to the reputation for dependability and high brand value. The Charter House heritage includes making widespread contributions to the expansion and development of the local market, championing many national projects to supply diverse products in the building, construction, and industrial segments. The company was an integral part of some of the largest projects in Sri Lanka and was the preferred supplier of bathware to many prestigious projects in the hospitality industry in the country.

Understanding the importance of support services, Charter House operates a fully- equipped service centre.

This centre is manned by experienced and factory-trained engineers with other trained technical personnel. Therefore every customer receives unparalleled service.

Our service further extends to on-call support and ready availability of spare parts. As a further measure to support our customers, our engineers can provide pre-and post-installation support when needed.

VingCard Elsafe has products installed in more than 39,000 properties worldwide, securing in excess of 6.5 million hotel rooms, and continues to offer advanced technology solutions to provide security and peace of mind for both hospitality providers and their guests. VingCard Elsafe's extensive international network covers more than 166 countries worldwide.

VingCard Elsafe is part of the company ASSA ABLOY, the world's leading provider of locking solutions. ASSA ABLOY is a publicly listed Swedish company traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Currently, the ASSA ABLOY Group has around 30,000 employees and annual sales of approximately EUR 3 billion.

The VingCard Elsafe regional conference 2012 took place in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from April 25-29l 2012. New technology was displayed at the regional distributor conference thus reestablishing itself as the pioneers of the industry. The VingCard partners were able to introduce and be part of the global strategy. The conference also included a new product launch and much exciting news and updates.

Hemas Piyawara opens pre-school in North

Foundation stone laid for two more in Mullaitivu:

The 86 pre-school aged children in the village of Ambalnagar saw light at the end of the tunnel as Hemas Holdings recently opened its first community pre-school at a cost of Rs. 2.5 million in this Northern village.

Situated 10kms away from the Kilinochchi town, Ambalnagar is a poor, small village comprising 1939 inhabitants. The 580 families who constitute the village migrated from the upcountry estates somewhere in the 1980s. They were displaced during the war and finally re-settled in their original village of Ambalnagar by the government when peace dawned.

Present on the occasion were Minister of Child Development Tissa Karaliyedde, Chairman Hemas Outreach Foundation Abbas Esufally, Executive Director of Hemas Outreach Foundation Shiromi Masakorala, Trustee Ms. Sue Evans and several others.

At present, this village has a large population of children requiring pre-school education. Bereft of proper facilities, the makeshift pre-schools are currently housed in temporary sheds or damaged buildings. The aim of this project is to provide facilities and encourage such communities to send their children to pre-schools.

"The Piyawara community pre-school concept is aimed at helping communities living in remote re-settled areas. As an initial step the community school will have two classrooms, two toilets and a tube well. This is a prototype model which has been developed with the Children's Secretariat and confirms to the minimum standards as required by the Government. The building will function both as a pre-school and also as a community centre, thereby enabling it to serve all members of the community. This project goes beyond bricks and mortar and takes a holistic approach to pre-school education in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile foundation stones have also been laid for two more such schools in Mullaitivu", said Executive Director of Hemas Outreach Foundation Shiromi Masakorala,

"Setting up a community pre-school for a marginalised community in a remote area which is recovering from decades of conflict was a rather formidable task. We do place on record both the moral and logistical support extended to us by the Government and the Sri Lanka Army in getting this project off the ground", said Chairman Hemas Outreach Foundation Abbas Esufally. The post-war era saw many traumatised children in the make-shift camps at Menik Farm. This was when Hemas, together with the Children's Secretariat, set up pre-schools and play areas to keep them occupied even under difficult circumstances. As a long term measure Hemas also built model pre-schools in the North. The first ever model pre-school was opened in Jaffna in 2011. Another model school in the pipeline is to be built in Kilinochchi city.

The first Hemas Piyawara Pre-School was set up in Kurunegala in 2002 with two teachers, and 22 children on roll. Today, a decade later in 2012, Piyawara spans the length and breadth of Sri Lanka with 34 pre-schools, over 100 teachers and enriching lives of over 3000 children.

Piyawara stands today as a successful initiative, a sustainable and ongoing project by Hemas and the Children's Secretariat ... demonstrating the success of government - private sector partnerships in addressing national issues and going beyond the geographical divide.