Rural athlete development project wins accolade at Ceylon Chamber's 'Best Corporate Citizen' awards:

Janashakthi Insurance recognized among SL's best corporate citizens

Janashakthi Insurance PLC was the only insurance company to be recognized among Sri Lanka's best corporate citizens at the recently held glittering awards event hosted annually by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC). An upbeat leadership team from Janashakthi, attributed the recognition as a positive impact on the company's commitment to promoting social, economic and ethical practices among employees, customers and community.

"Corporate responsibility is an integral part of how we do business everyday" revealed Janashakthi's Managing Director, Prakash Schaffter.

"In addition to the specific Athletics Development Project that was recognized, the company supports and encourages multiple sports and has been doing so for many years".

We see this as our commitment and contribution to the community that we serve" explained Bertal Pinto Jayawardene who drives the project. Pinto Jayawardene, Janashakthi's General Manager Finance and Planning, added that the wholesome values of sport; rigour, discipline, fair play, equal opportunity, as well as the spirit of clean sportsmanship and the pursuit of performance excellence were all attributes that the programme tried to inculcate.

Janashakthi took a conscious decision to actively promote sports education within their social responsibility portfolio and has supported and sponsored athletes and sports women and men in the various disciplines of cricket, athletics, hockey, squash, badminton, rugby and sailing.

With particular emphasis on developing promising athletes from under-privileged and economically challenged rural areas, Janashakthi has been able to continuously support athletes on their journey to becoming national stars. Spoken of as 'national treasures', some of these athletes have already proven themselves by bringing recognition to Sri Lanka.

The company has on an annual basis, selected hand-picked school level athletes from rural villages to be included in the "pool". These are athletes who face many challenges. Currently fourteen outstanding athletes receive a monthly sponsorship, technical support, an incentive scheme to inspire them to perform in addition to mentoring, on-going motivation and development, under the 'rural school athlete sponsorship and development programme'.

The athletes under this project have done tremendously well having won medals at SAARC and other national and international events.