DFCC helps turnaround 100 rural schools

DFCC has completed the development of 100 needy schools across the country under its corporate social responsibility project banner ‘Towards an Exemplary Society’. The project has benefitted around 50,000 children aged six to 10 years.  

The bank, together with its retail banking subsidiary Vardhana Bank, has been working on the project since 2010 under the guidance of the Ministry of Education.  The project aims to uplift the lives of children through the transformation of their schools, located especially in rural Sri Lanka.

This is a unique project in which the turnaround in schools was in effect achieved by teams consisting of teachers, students and parents of the respective schools together with DFCC staff volunteers through implementing a 12 month-long program consisting of the Japanese principles of ‘5S’ + safety (6S) and ‘3R’ (Reduce-Reuse-Recycle) concepts.

In schools, change begins with teachers who have a positive outlook. To effect perceivable improvements, initially and on an on-going basis, the bank conducted seminars, workshops related to positive thinking, change management, leadership development, teamwork and creative thinking exercises using experts in the respective fields. The well-known ‘5S’ guru Lal Fonseka was enlisted to lead the program.

Despite the many hurdles the bank had to overcome in implementing the program, today DFCC stands proud having given a renewed sense of direction to 100 schools across the country including those in the north and east.

Through the program, the bank expected schools to undergo noticeable changes in terms of the condition of school buildings, surrounding gardens, arrangement of the classrooms and overall cleanliness.

“Through these changes, the important outcome expected was positive change in the behaviour of students in the classroom and outside. We noticed that after full implementation of the project, attendance improved in schools, children were happier, disciplined and improved productivity levels were observed,” commented Rosheeni Wijesekera, DFCC’s Vice President of Corporate Communications.   

DFCC received recognition for the project with a Distinguished Honoree ‘Stevie Award’ in 2010 at the International Business Awards (IBA) of USA. In the same year the bank collected the Best CSR Project award in the Education and Training category at the Best Corporate Citizens’ Awards 2010 conducted by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.