Community

Creating an educated citizenry

Books for the future
In partnership with the Asia Foundation, one of our primary sustainability projects now has completed its sixth consecutive year successfully distributing over 130,000 books to students and adults pursuing a professional education in rural geographical areas, making literacy accessible to all. Educational material on diverse subjects including Science, Geography, Arts, Engineering, English Language, etc is distributed. During the six consecutive years of commitment SLT together with Asia Foundation has distributed more than a million books around the island. One of the highlights of year 2009 was the distribution of 100 Braille books to the University of Kelaniya in our bid to empower the differently abled students at this university and the donation of books to libraries at the Menik Farm which housed IDPs.

Apey Daruwo Scholarship Programme
Fifty children between the ages of 5 and 16 years who have been directly or indirectly affected by the ethnic conflict, were awarded scholarships during this year in a bid to give them a sustainable secure platform to continue their education. Twenty-five (25) were orphaned by the ethnic conflict and are now settled temporarily at the Kovilkulum Children's Home, while another 24 were children whose fathers were war heroes disabled by the ethnic conflict. One child, orphaned due to a bomb explosion is from Matara. A gift pack comprising a school bag, shoes, books and other essential school material was handed over to each child plus a fixed deposit account was opened at Bank of Ceylon, where Rs. 25,000/- was deposited on behalf of each child, accessible upon reaching 18 years of age. The Sri Lanka Telecom team contributed for a whole year at Rs. 100 per person per month towards the scholarships.

SchoolNet and NODES
Sri Lanka Telecom was the infrastructure and service provider for SchoolNet and National Online Distance Education Services (NODES), a project under the Ministry of Education. SchoolNet is an online educational system designed to connect schools islandwide to one network, providing voice, video, broadband Internet, network services and hosting services. Sri Lanka Telecom's input into NODES involved connecting the NODES Access centers located in universities across the country. These initiatives are aligned to our aspirations of creating a stronger resource pool for students and teachers throughout the country.

One Laptop for every child
Initiated by the Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka Telecom assisted the Ministry in this endeavour by providing CDMA facilities free of charge to the primary schools involved in the project from each province.

EDEX 2009
Sri Lanka Telecom annually sponsors EDEX, the most prestigious and largest national higher education and career exhibition in the island. This year, Sri Lanka Telecom and Mobitel were joint Platinum sponsors. EDEX aims to bridge the gap between the expectations of business organisations and the availability of competent youth. By properly educating the youth of this country, we strongly believe they can be a vital influence in shaping the country's future. Each year, EDEX attracts over 75,000 visitors, ranging from school leavers to university graduates and by sponsoring this event, we feel that we have established a gateway to a large number of youth across the country to bridge the information gap. This year, we featured some of the latest emerging technological innovations initiated by Sri Lanka Telecom including our breakthrough communication services provided through Wizz, with its plethora of features. Other services demonstrated include CDMA, mobile PBX as well as games and 3D displays. Furthermore, visitors to the exhibition were given the opportunity to experience the technology and services for themselves.

e-Asia Conference
Sri Lanka Telecom, a champion of the ICT revolution in Sri Lanka played the role of Pinnacle Partner of the 4th annual e-Asia Conference hosted by Sri Lanka in November 2009. e-Asia being Asia's premier ICT event, Sri Lanka Telecom channeled its commitment towards it in line with the declaration made by His Excellency the President that the year 2009 is the Year of English and ICT.

National Information Technology Conference 2009
Sri Lanka Telecom and Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel partnered the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) for the 27th NIT Conference as Platinum Sponsors on the theme, "Three I-s for an e enabled Sri Lanka: Integration, Innovation & Impact." The CSSL has undertaken numerous initiatives towards the development of the ICT Industry in Sri Lanka, disseminating knowledge, education and training in order to maintain the highest standards of professionalism amongst the ICT fraternity.

Next Generation Network Standardization Forum (NGN)
One of the largest international technology forums held in Sri Lanka, the event was hosted by the TRC and brought together industry leaders involved in the approval, monitoring, manufacturing, planning and deployment of the next generation communications equipment and services. Adding more credence to the support extended by Sri Lanka Telecom is the fact that the company is in the process of migrating into NGN having completed two phases already and poised to launch the third in 2010.

Empowering professionalism

CIM Annual Conference 2009
CIM, which is the country's premier professional marketing body was partnered by Sri Lanka Telecom for its 9th annual conference, to foster excellence in marketing. This strategic partnership holds Sri Lanka Telecom in good stead as it gives us further drive to make our transition from a network to a market oriented organization, while also instilling the values of technology and innovation coupled with professionalism into the CIM fraternity. The theme of this year's conference was "Unconventional marketing strategies to survive in turbulent times".

CIMA Business Leaders' Summit 2009
Sri Lanka Telecom has maintained a long standing partnership with CIMA, the world's largest and leading professional body of management accountants that has made a tremendous contribution to the development of society and the corporate world through high caliber professionals. We further reiterated the tenets of professionalism by continuing this partnership with CIMA this year as well. This year's conference was on the theme, "The Challenge - Now and Ahead" and brought together top corporates, business leaders, professionals as well as eminent speakers from Sri Lanka and abroad.

National HR Conference 2009
This was conducted by the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM) Sri Lanka under the theme "Gaining Strength in Economic Uncertainty". Sri Lanka Telecom was the Strategic Partner of this conference, demonstrating the importance of the role of HR professionals in the journey of an organisation. Given that human resources remain a fundamental asset of any organisation and a vital stakeholder in the sustainability of the organisation, Sri Lanka Telecom's contribution as a sponsor stimulates the platform for HR professionals to share knowledge and experience.

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Empowering Sports

National Olympic Committee
Sri Lanka Telecom sponsored the National Olympic Committee's calendar of events for 2009 including the National Olympic Day Run held in the Ratnapura town. It was attended by approximately 10 school children from 15 different schools as well as other participants. The aim of the Olympic Day Run is to raise awareness amongst all communities regarding the importance of the Olympic games and to encourage the inculcation of the Olympic values, which are to encourage knowledge of one's abilities and limits, a competitive spirit, excellence, fair play as well as the access for every individual to sports, irrespective of their abilities, race or other differences.

Athletic Association of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Telecom has continuously partnered the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka for a number of events on its annual calendar. We have been a passionate and enthusiastic supporter of the activities of the Association as we strongly believe that it provides an invaluable service to our nation by fostering local sporting talent. In 2009, we were the telecommunications partner for:

• Kids' Athletic Development Programme aimed at developing athletic ability in children below the age of 15 years. Sri Lanka Telecom strongly believes and understands the importance of training children at a young age and giving them the inspiration and opportunities to achieve their dreams.


• The 87th National Athletic championships which gathered athletes of all ages from across the island.


• The 52nd Junior National Championships for the young athletes of Sri Lanka.


• Women's Athletic Championships 2009 displaying our appreciation and paying tribute to the women of Sri Lanka.

Nationalised Services Badminton Association (NSBA)
As Principal Sponsor, Sri Lanka Telecom partnered the NSBA for four tournaments, in addition to the 23rd annual Nationalised Services All Island Open Badminton Championships. The NSBA has become one of the most active and renowned badminton associations that is one of the driving forces behind the game of badminton in Sri Lanka.

Carlton Cup
The Carlton Sports Club aims to empower and develop sporting talent especially amongst the youth in Sri Lanka whilst forging the values of unity, harmony and equal opportunity for all people everywhere. In various capacities Sri Lanka Telecom sponsored the Carlton Cup Basketball Tournament 2009 and the Carlton Sevens Sri Lanka, the first ever Rugby Sevens tournament hosted in Sri Lanka.

Partnering Sri Lanka Cricket, Sri Lanka Telecom contributed towards the national passion of cricket by being the Main Sponsor for the Interprovincial cricket tournament for the season 2008/2009, an identification ground for young talented cricketers with potential.

Developing national enterprise

Deyata Kirula National Development Exhibition 2009
Sri Lanka Telecom was the Total Communication Provider for the Deyata Kirula Exhibition organised by the Government of Sri Lanka for the third consecutive year. The two stalls provided information on our extensive service and product portfolio while showcasing the newer innovations.

Gamata Thakshanaya - IT for the village
Sri Lanka Telecom partnered the Ministry of Science & Technology to provide total communication solutions for all institutions spearheaded by the Ministry under the Gamata Thakshanaya project. These include 300 "Vidatha Resource Centres" located around the country and aims to provide rural Sri Lanka with access to technology such as e mail, internet, and fax and distance learning. These centers also provide facilities such as bank loans, market information, techniques and information on enterprise development as an encouraging facet in developing rural entrepreneurship and enterprise.