7 July 2013

To our stakeholders:

I am pleased to confirm that Aspirations Education reaffirms its support of the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption.

In this annual Communication on Progress, we describe our actions to continually improve the integration of the Global Compact and its principles into our business strategy, culture and daily operations. We also commit to share this information with our stakeholders using our primary channels of communication.

Sincerely yours,

Ajith Abeysekera

Chairman

Aspirations Education Foundation (AEF) has embraced the principles of Global Compact Initiative and has incorporated them within our work spheres. AEF operates focusing its attention on right to education and need based community mobilization for development. Within the past year our work has focused on ensuring and promoting children’s rights in marginalized communities and uplifting the standard of living in a holistic approach.

Ensuring children’s right to education has been a primary concern of AEF. ‘Apeksha’ Scholarship scheme which was launched in 2007 to assist talented students with financial difficulties was expanded during the last year and currently more than 400 students representing 22 schools are benefiting through this intervention project.

AEFs scholarship scheme has reached out to assist student from North and Eastern provinces which were severely affected during the recently concluded civil war. Some students who had been in internally displaced (IDP) camps are now beneficiaries of our scholarship scheme and are continuing their compulsory education, working towards a brighter future.

In order to create a stimulating learning environment within schools, AEF has been funding and coordinating various infrastructural and education development programmes within our partner schools. Infrastructure development, Water and Sanitation, IT education, Language education, First aid, Sports and leadership development, Library development and agriculture and home gardening were the main focus areas of our school based development projects.

The assistance lent to these deserving rural schools and surrounding less income group communities in this manner has helped to secure the children’s rights to education and has ensured that they have access to basic facilities a student requires thus providing them a stimulating educational platform to achieve their aspirations.

AEF has reached out to develop the nursery education system in outskirts of Sri Lanka. Projects that were launched under this sphere mainly focused on creating a child friendly learning environment in these institutes. Such projects included uplifting basic facilities like water and sanitation facilities and also providing materialistic aid such as desks, chairs, play equipment etc. Developing nursery education lays the platform for these students to merge with formal education system which begins in primary classes with ease.

-“Apeksha” scholarship scheme has reached out to provide scholarships to more than 400 students from 27 different schools representing 18 districts of the island including Ampara, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Colombo, Gampaha, Jaffna, Kandy, Kegalle, Kilinochchi, Kurunegala, Mannar, Matale, Monaragala, Mulativu, Nuwara Eliya, Polonnaruwa and Tricomalee.

-Financial assistance was given to Sirisanda Primary school, in Ampara District, to purchase play equipment including a see-saw, swing unit, merry-go-round, for children’s use. In order to fulfill the inadequate number of chairs and desks available for use at the school, AEF granted financial to purchase new desks and chairs for the use of students.

-In January 2013, text books and other education related books were donated to Okkampitiya Wijayabahu Maha Vidyalaya and Okkampiyitya Wijayabahu primary school to enrich their library collections as a part of our library and literacy development programme.

-As a part of the effort to develop language education and science education in rural schools, AEF provides monthly financial assistance to few of our partner schools to cover the remunerations provided to qualified teachers who were hired by the schools, under our encouragement and guidance, to address the dearth of qualified teachers. Under this project ;
Wijayabahu Maha Vidyalaya in Monaragala district hired teachers for Tamil language, English language and Mathematics.
Lihiniwehera Kanishta Vidyalaya in Kurunegala district hired a teacher for Tamil Language. Veppamkulam School in Mannar district hired Mathematics teacher to teach Mathematic to the Primary classes.

-Financial assistance was provided to Ridimaliyadda Kandegama Kanishta Vidyalaya to buy the necessary sports costumes for the Girl’s cricket team, who were the champions of their education zone in 2012. AEF pours their efforts to empower school sports sector as this is the platform from which future stars of world sport emerge.

-Public address systems were donated to Kobbawela Keerthirathna Maha Vidyalaya and Dhammajothi Kanishata Vidyalaya in Kegalle district as it was a pressing necessity for both these schools. Both these schools are located in slope terrains and these geographical factors make communication between different sections of the school rather difficult. Addressing this issue allowed these schools to strengthen their intra-school communication.

-Visaka Pre-School in Ampara district and Seedevi preschool in Kegalle District has been beneficiaries of oue preschool development projects. A drinking water project was given to Vishaka preschool in Inginiyagala by AEF to benefit nearly 50 young children. Seedevi preschool was donated child friendly desks and chairs to address the inadequacy of these resources.

Each undertaken Project is Monitored by regular visits to the location 3 times per month. In addition to the team Chairman personally visits the projects frequently. There is a reporting mechanism , where project leaders of each listed project above , reports to the Aspirations Head Office.

AEF operates with respect to rights of all employees and does not tolerate any form of discrimination and all are treated equally irrespective of the race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, family circumstances, political opinion, trade union membership, age, nationality or disability.

AEF believes in community participation and active involvement in the process of development and we incorporate and mobilize individuals from rural communities as in group approach in our development projects. This creates employment opportunities for individuals and helps to empower the communities around schools in which we carry our projects.

We also support the emergence of Community Based Organizations (CBO) to encourage the group approach in rural development initiatives. The active involvement of the rural community to identify the burning issues and needs in a holistic manner will contribute to the sustainable development in rural community.

As a part of agriculture based projects, AEF encouraged unemployed individuals from the schools immediate surroundings to get involved with the project in turn for which they receive a sufficient remuneration. These individuals are the stakeholders of the project and we believe that this provides them an opportunity to explore the world of entrepreneurship which in turn would empower them to launch their own ventures. This strengthens them economically while their efforts would assist indirectly to develop the school in their own community.

Development of education sector and the financial support lent to students from low economic backgrounds to continue their education without disruption assists to eradicate child labour. Education lays a strong platform for their personal development and this reduces the chance of them being exploited. Formal education they receive through schools opens doors to different career opportunities which will secure their future.

Most of the rural communities in Sri Lanka are agricultural communities and children sometimes drop out of schools with the consent of their parents to assist their families with agriculture related activities. AEF has also focused on educating the parents of students in general, to stress upon the importance of education with the intention of reducing the number of such dropouts. Raising awareness is a fruitful campaign in these rural communities as parents are willing to support what is best for their child.

-Number of our partner schools joined hands with AEF to launch the agriculture related project schemes. Padavi Jayanthi MV from Trincomalee district, Dhammajothi KV from Kegalle district, Polwatta MV from Ampara district, Kandegama KV from Badulla district, Paragahakele MV from Ampara district, Kurulubedda PV from Polonnaura district are the current partner schools who have joined this venture. Parents, students, school development society and the school administration are stakeholders of these projects and this eventually allows schools to become self-sustainable by these income generation projects.

-IT training centre was established with in Inginiyagala, Ampara District to increase the IT literacy of youth and school children in the surrounding community. School leavers, government and private sector employees and youth groups in this village now have an opportunity to enhance their IT knowledge thus benefit from this project. Main aim of this project was to create better career opportunities for the rural youth by equipping them with a proper IT education which is a necessity in highly globalized modern world.

-AEF also supports development of small scale cottage industries with the intention of promoting entrepreneurship among rural communities. Sewing machine and technical knowledge was provided to a young woman to start her small scale garment industry which marked the launch of our women empowerment programme which will be developed within this year to make a broader impact. Women empowerment will also assist to diminish gender inequality which is a global concern.

-AEF has assisted to launch farmer-societies in rural communities. Idea behind this is to develop the communication among the farmers which will assist them greatly to address the common pressing issues. These associations will be empowered to launch their own community development projects which will be based upon their common necessities.

Same as in the Human Rights section applied to the projects above. Periodic review of results by senior management

AEF has concentrated on making all our development projects environmental friendly as we place high value upon sustainability. As a part of diversifying our focus areas, AEF has launched few agriculture based income generation projects in our partner schools. Crops with a commercial value such as mangos, pineapple etc are grown within the school premises and the harvest is utilized to generate income which is then used to support the school development work.

Special attention is paid to maintain these agriculture projects environmentally friendly and to make sure that natural ecosystems in these rural communities are not disturbed by the introduced commercial crops. Fertilizers and other technical equipment used are ensured to be environmentally friendly. AEF has also been promoting home gardening, where necessary guidance is provided to initiate and maintain small home gardens using day-to-day organic waste materials as fertilizers.

These projects raise awareness about benefits of recycling organic waste and other environmental friendly techniques utilized in eco friendly agriculture schemes.

-As a part of the agriculture project scheme following cultivations were initiated in our partner schools;

Padavi Jayanthi Maha Vidyalaya in Trincomalee district – Mango cultivation
Dhammajothi KV from Kegalle district – Rambutan, Pineapple and areca nut cultivations
Polwatta MV from Ampara district – Mango cultivation
Kandegama KV from Badulla district – Mango cultivation
Paragahakele MV from Ampara district – Water melon and mango cultivation
Kurulubedda PV from Polonnaura district – Guava and mango cultivation

-These crops will be cultivated in environmentally friendly manner and organic fertilizer use is being promoted in every school to maintain their cultivations and other home gardens.

-All these agricultural projects are being supervised by a well experienced and qualified agricultural consultant to ensure that these introduced crops do not disturb the natural ecosystems. Cultivating crops are selected depending upon the geographical and weather conditions of the location to ensure sustainability and high productivity.

These school based agricultural projects will empower the agricultural sector of Sri Lanka in future and awareness would be raised regarding sustainable, eco-friendly agricultural techniques as many schools children, their parents and surrounding communities are educated through this project scheme

Periodic review of results by senior management. Please refer section 1 & 2.

AEF operates with respect to transparency, integrity and places high value on anti corruption. We stress upon maximum community participation with regard to our development projects based in rural communities to ensure these aspects are carried forth in them.

AEF encourages bilateral agreements between us and partner schools to promote good governance, systematic, sustainable progression and transparency.

AEF encourages bilateral agreements between us and partner schools to promote good governance, systematic, sustainable progression and transparency.