Page 18 - Hemas_Piyawara_Book

Piyawara is built on the ethos of
eliminating inequality to create a more
inclusive world. This is the very heart
of our purpose.
Kasturi Chellaraja Wilson
Chief Executive Officer of Hemas Holdings PLC
10 Hemas Piyawara - A Journey to the Future
The Municipal Councils (MCs), Urban Councils (UCs) and Pradeshiya Sabhas (PSs)
run the preschools with each province having its own system. The preschool teachers
are entitled to charge a nominal fee from their little wards as remuneration for their
work. In many cases, pre-Piyawara, it was often an untrained mother in the village who
conducted the preschool, more as a service than anything else.
Even though the mandate of the Hemas Group under the agreement was refurbishment
of selected preschools, the team found to their dismay that Jaffna’s was just a garage.
This brought forth the initiative to build a preschool as there simply was no building
to refurbish. Thus the honour of being the flag bearer of the first-ever Model Preschool
built under Piyawara is held by Jaffna.
With the challenges faced by the north during the war, the Jaffna Preschool was small
as the Hemas Group had to manage with available resources, but there has been a re-
awakening post-war with a newer Model Preschool.
Along with Jaffna, the Hemas Group simultaneously set about refurbishment of
preschools in the areas allocated to them – Kurunegala, Polonnaruwa and others,
opening model preschools in 2003 and 2004.
The Hemas Group’s partnerships have gone beyond ground-level structures or training
of preschool teachers, with Shiromi heavily involved in the development of the very first
National Policy on ECCD in 2004 and with the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs
up to now. This was by virtue of being appointed to the ministry’s National Committee
on ECCD which is the policymaking body. Shiromi is the longest-serving member of
this committee. In 2013, meanwhile, Shiromi was also appointed as a Director of the
National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) for three years.
The challenges overcome on Piyawara’s long journey of 20 years and the milestones
passed are many…….
Among them are the tragedy of the natural disaster of the tsunami which engulfed a
large stretch of the country’s coastline; the man-made disaster in the north and east
which sent hundreds of thousands of displaced people to Menik Farm in Vavuniya; and
the plight of children with disabilities tied up in tiny rooms for fear of stigma.