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Fonterra anchors to grass roots with clean water, sanitary facilities to school
View(s):Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka along with Kansarmen Sri Lanka Foundation recently provided 170 schoolchildren of Akaravita Maha Vidyalaya, Hanwella, with access to clean running water, sanitary facilities and a newly renovated school hall.
Children make use of newly constructed sinks, one of two units within the school
At the opening, Fonterra announced the launch of its Grass Roots Fund for community projects that will have a positive social, economic and environmental impact on local dairy communities.
The ceremony was attended by Fonterra officials including Managing Director- Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Pascal De Petrini, Managing Director- Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka, Leon Clement, Director – Cooperative Affairs, Dr Athula Kahandaliyanage, and over 20 staff volunteers.
Mr Clement said this project is a great example of future projects that the Company will look to help support through its Fonterra Grass Roots Fund.
“With a strong history of over 35 years in Sri Lanka, our focus is on further developing local communities where our dairy farmers that supply the company with fresh milk are based. For us it’s important not only to support them with training and development to grow more sustainable dairy communities, but also to uplift and bring together the wider community through the Grass Roots Fund,” said Mr Clement.
MP and Deputy Minister of Civil Aviation, Geethanjana Gunawardena who also serves as Divisional Coordinating Committee Chairman of the Seethawaka Divisional Secretariat, welcomed the initiative, adding: “Through their Corporate Social Responsibility initiative, Fonterra reaches out to village communities and uplifts the lives of the villagers. We are grateful to them for having extended their support to this village school by coming forward to help complete the water and sanitation project. There are over 400 dairy farmers living in our village. The majority of these
Deputy Minister of Civil Aviation and Member of Parliament, Geethanjana Gunawardena unveils plaque at the newly constructed water storage tank
farmers supply milk to the Fonterra factory in Biyagama to make a living. Throughout the years, Fonterra has enriched their lives by supporting the farmers with the technical know-how and helping them to increase their production.”
A dairy farmer supplying to Fonterra, Sisira de Silva, said that he was happy his children who attend Akaravita Maha Vidyalaya, now have access to clean water.
“Sanitary facilities and water is a basic necessity for children attending a school. We are very grateful to Fonterra for setting up these facilities, because it is our own children who will benefit,” he said.
Commenting on closely working with Fonterra, a farmer supplier for over a decade and a member of Fonterra’s Farmer Education & Training Programme (FETP), Ms. Piyangani said:
“My family and I have been Fonterra dairy farmers for over 14 years, and there is a vast difference in our farm’s productivity between then and now, because of the expertise Fonterra has brought into our farming practices within this period. Fonterra experts play a very hands-on role at our farms, providing us with training in cattle rearing.”
“Working with Fonterra has been all about personal development for my family. When we started, we owned only 2 or 3 cows. However, we have now increased that number to 15 to 20, producing up to 4 or 5 times more milk than we used to,” she added.