John Keells Foundation Launches ‘Project WAVE’ (Working Against Violence through Education) on 12th November 2014 at Earl’s Court, Cinnamon Lakeside, Colombo

Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women falling on November 25th, John Keells Foundation (JKF) officially launched its latest initiative: Project WAVE (Working Against Violence through Education) under the patronage of Chairman Mr. Susantha Ratnayake and in the presence of members of the GEC, GOC and distinguished invitees representing external organizations in the field of gender and child rights. The rollout plan is designed to commence with the employees of the John Keells Group and proceed to encompass communities associated with the Group’s business locations and the general public.

All participants were pinned with the White Ribbon at the entrance as a form of a personal pledge against Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Child Abuse.
Lighting of the Lamp – Members of the GEC and JKF
Lighting of the Lamp – Invitees from external organizations and Resource Persons
Shyama Salgado, Gender Focal Point, ILO and Ayomi Fernando, Training Coordinator/Senior Industrial Relations Advisor, EFC	Resource Persons, Ramani Jayasundere and Saama Rajakaruna
Also present were Suzanne Davy, Communication Officer of UNICEF; Bimali Ameresekere, Technical Coordinator/Gender & Women’s Empowerment Project of UNDP; Surovi Salgado of UNWomen; Julian Chellappah, Director Programme of Save the Children and Hans Billimoria and Pabha Deshapriya of Grassrooted Trust
Introduction to the evening by Lucille Diaz (KHMS), MC and Co-Champion Project WAVE	Welcome Address by Nadija Tambiah, Head of CSR
Address by Mr. Susantha Ratnayake, Chairman, JKH “I am extremely happy to be here, as this is something very close to my heart…….. I asked the Foundation to work on this because I was really alarmed, especially about the violence against women and children. If you see, this is getting much more frequent. Most of these cases go unreported. It’s something that we at John Keells have zero tolerance for and we give leadership to take the message out to all our stakeholders and the community at large.”	Carmeline Jayasuriya, Head of Operations JKF, explained the background to, structure and scope of Project WAVE and its fit within the CSR strategy
A highlight of the evening was Kumar Sangakkara’s endorsement of Project WAVE
Members of the GEC, GOC, JKF Management Committee, business and functional heads were in attendance.
Resource persons, Ramani Jayasundere and Saama Rajakaruna, conducted an interactive awareness session.
The audience paid close attention and engaged with the presenters. “King of Cats” – Colombo Branch
A novel feature was the forum theatre acts presented by staff volunteers. “Emperor’s New Clothes” Jaffna Branch
Dilani Alagaratnam, President – HR, Legal, Sustainability and CSR, presented JKH’s appreciation to resource persons who contributed to Project WAVE. “I know why the caged bird sings” – Ratnapura Branch
Ramani Jayasundere, consultant, Project WAVE	Saama Rajakaruna, consultant, Project WAVE
Hans Billimoria of Grassrooted Trust, Volunteer Trainer, Forum Theatre group	Saliya Ratnayake (KHMS), Volunteer developer of Project WAVE creatives
The audience was appreciative of the programme	Vote of thanks by Suren Perera (JMSL), Co-Champion Project WAVE
JKF thanks all those who participated at the event and the volunteers who supported it in various ways.
John Keells Foundation – November 2014