National Bank Financial is Honoured at the Opening of Sri Lankan School

March 5, 2006
Thirukkovil, Sri Lanka
By Adrian Horwood
Senior Vice President
Marketing and Communications

March 5, 2006 was a day for all employees of National Bank Financial to be very proud. In May 2005, we committed to re-building a school in tsunami-devastated Sri Lanka. On March 5, thanks to our financial support and the hard work of others, the school has opened.

I had been asked to represent the firm at the opening of the new village school in Thirukkovil, Kumara, Sri Lanka. With me was Bob Webb, Investment Advisor from Chatham, Ontario, whose name had been drawn to represent the many employees who donated last year to this worthy cause.

Our delegation of foreigners stepped from the minivans, parked on the unpaved road, into the tropical mid morning heat for the ceremonies. With us were representatives from Free the Children (Craig Kielburger, Chairman; Lloyd Hanoman, Director of Operations in Sri Lanka) and the Government of Canada (Rachel Bedlington, High Commissioner; Christina Préfontaine, Consul for Public and Political Affairs, Calvin Piggott, Director responsible for Tsunami Relief).

National Bank Financial and its employees donated over $700,000 in funding for the children of the country. Free the Children (FTC) is the Canadian Non-Governmental Organization that managed the project.

Three Canadian high school students, Fanny Melo from Montreal, and Sally Hakim and Emma Maxim from Toronto, were also there because of their participation in FTC’s leadership development program for Canadian students.

There was an air of excitement and joy in the village. The school children rushed forward to place garlands of fresh flowers around the necks of the guests from Canada. The marching band came forward, saluted and led the procession of Canadians, local dignitaries, and smiling children down the narrow dirt road as other children showered the guests with petals and rice like we do at a wedding. Boy Scouts saluted and fireworks popped in celebration.

We stopped for a ceremonial blessing with incense, then moved forward to unveil the plaque as four hundred villagers crowded around. Then it was time to cut the ribbon and have the traditional oil lamp lighting ceremony before entering the new school grounds.

The people of Thirukkovil endure a difficult life. Kumara is a poor region supported by fishing and rice farming. There is no industry and little tourism in this remote region of the country, which is nine hours by road from the capital, Colombo. A civil war has raged in the region for twenty years. The tsunami on December 26, 2004 destroyed much of the few resources that this village enjoyed. Nine thousand people in Kumara region died that day, nearly one-third of all deaths in the country. Three thousand people out of 45,000 in Thirukkovil lost their lives. The devastation of this region, and this village in particular, is hard for us to really comprehend. Many of the survivors lost hope.

Today, re-building has started and much has been cleaned up, but there is still a great deal to be done. Many people still live in temporary housing. The infrastructure has been patched up but not re-built. Our school is one of the first major projects to be completed.

Before the tsunami, the Kumara Primary School was one of the worst in the area. The tiny 2000 square foot (186 sq. m..) school had been known as “the begging school” because of the extreme poverty of the villagers, many of whom make as little as $100 per year. It had only two blackboards for five classrooms. The tsunami devastated the tiny school but, fortunately, it hit on a Sunday when the building was closed.

The architect who designed the buildings, Professor Vidura Sri Nammuni, explained that the new school is a complete contrast to the old. He is head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Moratuwa and former President of the Sri Lankan Institute of Architecture. He and Lloyd Hanoman, from Free the Children who oversaw every aspect of the school project, deserve credit for delivering a wonderful school, on time and on budget. Their pride is evident.

The school, which would appear very modest by North American standards, is a model of architectural design. It is structurally strong and functional, yet cost-effective. Based on the concept of student-centered learning, the internal classrooms and external environment are linked by a series of covered spaces, such as verandas or meeting and sitting spaces, to facilitate both formal and informal learning. Initial enrollment will be approximately 200 students, with an expectation that this will double over the next twelve to fifteen months.

At 11,000 square feet (1023 sq. m.), the school is five times larger than the old structure and it is now the largest school on the east coast of the country. It consists of four buildings.

The largest structure is two stories tall with the second floor at a height of twenty-three feet (just over seven meters) to provide protection in the event of another tsunami. It is built on the site of the original school, which is completely contained within the first floor. Parts of the old building were retained as storerooms, but also as a reminder of what had transpired. There is a large ground floor space for learning, discussions, or village events. The second floor will contain the computer room.

This is the first primary school in the area to integrate computer studies into the curriculum, with computers supplied by Washington-based Counterpart International.

Three other buildings house 17 classrooms with a music room, dance classroom, art room, science activity room, toy room and library. At 625 square feet (58 sq, m.), the classrooms are 25% larger than typical Sri Lankan primary school classes. With high, insulated, vented ceilings, large louvered windows and white paint, the rooms feel bright and cool. The Government is so pleased with this school that it has been designated a model for future school construction in the country.

The children had already decorated the classrooms. We were surprised and delighted to see posters on the walls made by children from Denville, Ontario that had been sent to Sri Lanka in support after the tsunami. We were given a stack of letters to bring back to the many Canadian children who had written. They had even decorated the floor of a classroom in coloured rice grains with our logo, the logo of Free the Children and the Canadian Flag.

The school grounds contain a playground and a cricket pitch. Sri Lankans are mad about cricket and a cricket pitch is one way to ensure that children come to school. There will also be a working garden to teach the children how to grow vegetables.

An important engineering feature is the stainless steel structure that is designed to last for generations. A humid tropical sea environment can be very hard on ordinary steel, quickly rusting through. The nuts and bolts system used means that in the event of another natural disaster, the walls can be replaced without the cost of replacing the structural components.

The east-coast region has a traditional, conservative, rural society that is a mix of Muslims and Hindus. The project brought the Tamil Hindu population of Thirukkovil together with the Muslim administrators from Pottuvil, further to the south. With a largely illiterate population, education is not always valued, particularly for girls. Free the Children had to overcome many biases to convince local officials to appoint an all-female teaching staff. Girls are more likely to enroll and stay in school if the teachers are women. The result is astonishing. About 60% of the students at the school are girls.

There were about four hundred villagers crammed under the corrugated fiberglass structure erected for the speeches. The many foreign and local speakers sat on a platform opposite under a similar roof, but that did not help those of us in the front row as we were first pelted with rain then blow dried by the tropical breeze and noon day sun.

There were many speeches by officials from the Ministry of Education, the Principal, and the Mayor. Students spoke, sang, and danced traditional Hindu dances. All were lavish in their praise and gratitude for National Bank Financial and Free the Children.

We raised enough funds to build the school and have some money left in trust for sustaining efforts. The on-going program will have three components. First, there will be funding for basic maintenance of programs at the school, such as the provision of school supplies. Second, there will be a health care intervention program to teach parents basic preventative steps they can take to keep their children healthy and in school; prevention of water-borne diseases, for example. Third, with the support of the Government of Canada, a micro-lending program will be established. Parents often keep their children out of school to work in support of the family. This program is intended to allow parents to earn enough income that they will support school attendance for their children.

We can be immensely proud of what we accomplished in Sri Lanka, thanks to many of you for your generous donations and the financial support of National Bank Financial.

Our school is a symbol of hope in a village that had lost almost everything. As Craig Kielburger said at the ceremonies, “National Bank Financial is helping to empower students and parents through education. National Bank Financial is a leader in corporate social responsibility, giving back by investing in the future.”