Standard Chartered Sri Lanka donates to Foundation of Goodness to improve digital learning in rural students

Standard Chartered Sri Lanka announced the donation of LKR3,680,000/- (USD 20,000) to the Foundation of Goodness (FoG) to improve the digital literacy skills of students at their centres in rural villages. The donation will help equip the centres with upgraded IT infrastructure, benefiting over 2,500 students in the Northern, Eastern and Southern provinces.

“Sri Lanka saw a sudden switch in the education system from physical to virtual due to the pandemic driven nation-wide lockdown, proving the inevitable dependence on technology. However, the lack of IT infrastructure in our country has made keeping up with the change difficult, especially for the rural communities. Standard Chartered, both globally and locally, is dedicated to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and we believe that this donation will take us one step closer to achieving inclusive and equitable education to students across Sri Lanka,” said Bingumal Thewarathanthri, CEO, Standard Chartered Sri Lanka commenting on the donation to Foundation of Goodness.

Foundation of Goodness is a Sri Lanka-based non-profit organisation dedicated to bridge the urban/ rural divide through humanitarian and developmental programmes across 500 villages in Sri Lanka, reaching over 35,000 beneficiaries annually, free of cost. FoG empowerment centres have been offering free Computer Training courses with high standards of IT training for many years. However, most existing computer systems are outdated, causing disadvantage to the rural youth looking to develop essential technological skills required for them to excel in a digitised world.