Sri Lanka’s leading private bank HNB PLC recently joined hands with one of the country’s leading premium bookstores- M.D. Gunasena, to support the “donate a book for change” CSR campaign to donate books and valuable reading material to schools in rural areas.

The two companies inked their partnership at the HNB Head Office in the presence of HNB Deputy General Manager- Retail & SME Banking, Sanjay Wijemanne, HNB Head of Network Management & Business Development, Supun Dias, HNB Senior Manager Head Office Customer Centre, Dilanka De Silva together with M.D Gunasena Managing Director, Rajiv Gunasena, M. D Gunasena Director, Hasitha Nanayakkara and M. D Gunasena Director, Yevinda Amarasekara.

“M.D. Gunasena has been conducting its “Donate a book for change” programme for over 2 years, with the aim of supporting school children from rural regions in the country. This great initiative will fuel the futures of students across the island and we are delighted to be a part of this life-changing opportunity,” HNB Deputy General Manager- Retail & SME Banking, Sanjay Wijemanne said.

HNB will be placing branded drop boxes at selected HNB branches encouraging both customers and HNB staff to donate books for this worthy cause and will have a hand in improving the literacy level of the community by supporting children in rural schools across the country.

“HNB is a bank with long standing relationships with schools across the island and we believe this partnership is an ideal opportunity to leverage this relationship to assist us in executing this initiative. We are grateful for any support we can get to provide rural students with books to improve their knowledge,” M.D Gunasena Managing Director, Rajiv Gunasena said.

Together HNB and M.D. Gunasena will identify and select the schools that will receive the donated books from the collection and present them to the fortunate school children who will reap the benefits through this programme for years to come. HNB has had a long-standing interest in CSR activities similar to this where they have refurbished over 200 school libraries and donated books to same schools.

Customers can now walk into any HNB branch and donate new or used books which are in good condition to be a part of this worthy cause.

HNB Deputy General Manager- Retail & SME Banking, Sanjay Wijemanne and M.D Gunasena Managing Director, Rajiv Gunasena making a donation

Photo Captions : HNB Deputy General Manager- Retail & SME Banking, Sanjay Wijemanne (sixth from left) and M.D Gunasena Managing Director, Rajiv Gunasena (sixth from right) with the teams from HNB and M.D Gunasena