MJF Charitable Foundation – Blog
Business is a matter of human service

The entire MJF Group took time off to have a day of great fun at the NCC grounds in Colombo last Sunday 7^th March at the inaugural Dilmah 6 – a – side Cricket and Volleyball tournament.

The organizing committee took great pains in looking into all details in ensuring a great day for all employees of the MJF Group.

The proceedings commenced at 8 in the morning with the hoisting of the National and Dilmah flags by Chairman Merrill J Fernando and the singing of the National Anthem and the Dilmah Anthems.

26 mens and 6 womens cricket teams and 4 volleyball teams representing the various departments of the group participated in the tournament. 61 cricket and 4 volleyball matches were worked out to precise timing in 5 pitches. All teams displayed good sportsmanship and competitiveness throughout the tournament backed by strong support and cheer from the respective departments. Typical Sri Lankan music and dance which one would usually see at the International cricket matches was also at hand to keep the supporters and cheering squads in high spirits.  Whilst the Production and Engineering Department teams fielded young players, Marketing, Operations and HR teams had players even  in their mid 50’s as well. Deputy Chairman Himendra a stylish cricketer during his days also played for the HR team.

Bulking Jumbos – representing the Production department won the mens cricket tournament whilst Premium Beauties consisting of the secretaries emerged the winners in the ladies finals.

Chairman along with Malik, Dilhan, Himendra, Minette, Roshan,  Rajeev and Upali gave away the awards and trophies to the winners. In his address to the staff, Chairman expressed his enthusiasm in having witnessed a well organized event played with good companionship and competitiveness and with the participation of the entire group as one family. He went on to say that this unity and comradeship was the need of the hour, not only at Dilmah but all over the world. The day’s proceedings concluded with a dancing session by the entire group to the popular rhythms of the Sri Lankan “baila”.

Having burnt out the entire hot and humid Sunday on the grounds the Dilamh teams were back at their work stations as usual on Monday morning . No aches or pains, no sprained muscles or ligaments!

That’s the Dilmah spirit and doing things the Dilmah way.

Reggie together with 6 Group Leaders of MJF Kids from Peliyagoda – Kasun, Faakeer, Diva, Krishanthini, Thamali and Ishani Tharuka visited the Pallansena MJF Kids on the 24th afternoon at Pallansena.

40 Kids from the Pallansena programme along with their teachers Gerard and Kanthi and the President of the Pallansena Fisheries Society accorded a warm welcome to the  the MJF Kids team. After a brief introduction of the MJF Kids programme,  its objectiives and expectations by Kamal, Reggie took over the inaugural proceedings. The Pallansena Kids were divided into 4 groups and with the help of the Peliyagoda Kids, the groups nominated their  Group Leaders and Secrataries and provided some of the initial information of the Kids and their expectations from the MJF Kids programme to be implemented at Pallansena shortly, which will be similar to the MJF Kids programme at Peliyagoda.

A breif exchange of ideas followed with the Peliyagoda Kids enlightening their Pallansena counter parts of  their success stories and also performed one of their dances to them.

A very strong and fruitful link seem to be emerging between the Kids from Peliyagoda and Pallansena and through which MJF has ensured that the traditional link between the birth village of the Founder / Chairman of MJF Group Merrill J Fernando  and the MJF  Group is further strenthened and a long term plan to improve the quality of life of the Pallansena community through a structured educational improvement project for the Pallansena MJF Kids is being established.

The MJFCF team whilst on their visit to the Holyrood Primary School site in February captured these images of a traditional religious festival being performed by the plantation workers.

 This is a usual Hindu festival celebrated by the plantation community in the month of January is called “Thai Poosa Thiruvila” in Tamil. Whilst the women carry special offerings to the temple the men perform the “parava kavadi” a special vow for lord Muruga.

MJF Groups inter department  6- a side- cricket tournament will be played at the NCC Grounds in the heart of Colombo on 7th March. Teams representing the Tea Department, Marketing, Production, Engineering , QA, Shipping, Transportation and HR/Admin will compete at this inaugural tournamnent. Kamal and Eardley from MJFCF will play in the HR/Admin team whilst Neome will play for the womens team. Uditha and Reggie will lead the cheer squads and Sumi will be a silent spectator.

Versatile and stylish cricketers during their school and college days in the calibre of  Himendra Ranaweera, Sanjaya Perara, Vajira Sugathapala, Ravindra Dias, Shehan, Rajeev Mathangaweera and Spencer Manualpillai etc… will be in action on the 7th of March.

The MJF ladies will be divided into 2 teams and will be lead by Marini and Dushy.

The respective teams are hard at practice these days after work.

  As the sun beat down on a hot Sunday, mothers lined up in the shade of the building with their children to see Dr.Ranaweera at the St.Mary’s church Mattakkuliya.

The good doc takes time with each little patient to check them carefully before giving the suited medication.

Community health is vital especially in these impoverished communities. Medication acts as a remedy, but as any medical practitioner would agree, doctor Ranaweera says, ‘prevention is better than cure’.

The medical clinic at the St.Mary’s church is usually held every second Sunday of each month. It is encouraging to see mothers bring their children for periodical check-ups knowing the importance of health and well being of their children.

The progress of the project is ahead of schedule. When the MJFCF team visited the site on their routine inspection tour on the 19th February,  the building constrcution had progressed upto roof level. The toilets to the school were almost complete. The view from the proposed school is amazing with lush green tea fields all around and the new plantation workers housing project on the opposite side.

Kamal together with Uditha the Technical Officer of MJFCF viisted the proposed site at the Dickoya Hospital on the 19th of February along with the contractor who has been entrusted with the construction work of the Eye surgical unit. Work on the project will commence by the 1st week March 2010. The team also met with Dr. Nihal Weerasooriya the District Medical Officer of the Dickoya Hospital who assured his fullest support to complete the project on time. Earlier the MJF Foundation obtatined concurrence from the Vision 2020 Secretariat and the Provincial Health Ministry of the Central Province to undertake this project.

With the very positive results achieved with the MJF Kids at Peliyagoda and Maligawatte, MJFCF will extend support to a similar initiative in Pallansena in Negombo,  the birth place the Settlor Merrill J Fernando.

Reggie the MJF KIds Co-ordinator met with the Kids at Pallansena recently to assess the current status and MJFCF will commence the new programme before end February. About 50 Kids from this fishing village in Pallansena will be initially absorbed to the programme, which will have IT, English and Maths classes and gradually be developed to the same levels of the MJF Kids programme presently being implemented in Peliyagaoda and Maligawatte.

The Glencairn Government Hospital in Dickoya is one of the large hopitals in the plantation district of Hatton/Bogawantalawa. It serves a population of nearly 150000, mostly residents in the tea plantations in the region. The hospital has been gradually upgraded in the recent past with added facilities to handle normal deliveries, minor ailments and surgeries etc. An exclusive eye care unit at this hospital had been a long felt need as the patients seeking eyecare treatment and cataract surgeries are referred to Nuwara Eliya or Nawalapitiya Hospitals, which are approx. 50 Km away from Dickoya.

The MJF Foundation having realized this urgent necessity had a series of discussions with the Health Ministry Officials at the Central Province and the Vision 2020 Secratariat in Colombo and with their concurrence decided to build and donate a  new eye surgical unit with a 14 bed ward facility for the Dickoya Hospital. This project is expected to be commenced in the 1st week March and the construction is expected to be completed within 6 – 8 months.

Dr. Dayawansa the Consultant Eye Surgeon of Nawalapitiya hospital was associated with the designing of the facility with the assistance the Provincial Health Director Central province Dr. Shanthi Samarasinghe and the DMO of Dickoya hospital Dr. Nihal Weerasooriya. Dr. Yoji Takano a friend of MJFCF in Japan was also closely associated with the project. In the meantime IRIS another institution associated with eye care in Sri Lanka has agreed to equip the MJFCF surgical unit.

MJFCF with the assistance of the Commissioner of Prisons and his staff visited the  rehabilitation centre which provides learning and training to young offenders. The Centre is located at Ambepussa about 50 Kms. from Colombo.  Currently the inmates are provides with learning opportunities with minimal facilities. There are many improvements needed for structural, service provision  and quality of training that are available at present.

As for now MJFCF  wish the students who would be sitting for their GCE O/L exams all the very best.