Financial Times - Children from rural areas get Sunlight schols

Children from rural areas get Sunlight schols

By Sachini Perera

When Unilever offered Malkanthi Karandawela the chance in 2003 to become a Sales Representative for Sunlight under its Sunlight Saubhagya project, her husband Gamini Premalal was sceptical. “I didn’t like the idea because in our village in Horana women entrepreneurs were unheard of and it was viewed unfavourably.”

But three years later Premalal’s point of view has changed. He says that the project has given their family financial security and has empowered women in rural villages like his. “They become confident and they get a chance to interact with many people,” he said adding that even he helps his wife with her work when he has the time.

Premalal made these comments on the sidelines of the recent Sunlight Saubhagya Scholarship awarding ceremony held at the Bishop’s College Auditorium.

Forty five deserving children of about 2600 beneficiaries of this programme from all parts of the country were chosen on the basis of academic and extracurricular achievements.

The full extent of the Saubhagya project is reflected by the rural areas with some of the children coming from Kekirawa, Rajangana and Kithulgala. Overcome by the exhaustion of travelling so far, one little boy was fast asleep even as the chief guests Hemachandra Ranatunga, Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Samurdhi and Poverty Alleviation, Ravindra Hewawitharana, Director General of the Samurdhi Authority and officials of Unilever were escorted in.

The scholarship winners, who varied from primary school children to university students, were awarded Rs. 30,000 which would be given to them as a monthly allowance of Rs.500 per month for a period of five years. “This scholarship would help me attend extra classes because I will be facing the O/L exam next year,” said 15 year-old Rishan Maduranga from Matara.

The happy faces of both the children and the parents at the Sunlight Saubhagya Scholarship awards spoke for the success of the project and the betterment of the beneficiaries’ lives. “Giving back to the very community that has made Sunlight the success it is today is the reason we take our social missions with utmost seriousness,” Amal Cabraal, Brands Director for Unilever said.

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