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

MJF Foundation embarked on its most ambitious and land mark project at Moratuwa, a seaside town close to the capital city of Colombo in April 2009. The project at Moratuwa will fulfill the wishes and aspirations of the Founder of Dilmah and the MJF Foundation Merrill J Fernando to share his success with those less priviledged and thus making his business a matter of human service.

 The 1^st phase of the project was inaugurated by Merrill J Fernando on 28^th November 2009 with the handing over of the keys of the Diri Piyasa Centre to its Chairperson Kshanika Weeratunga. This centre will offer support and assistance and limited residential care for women and their families who are affected by violence by providing them with free legal, medical, counseling and law enforcement services. It will also provide rehabilitation and some income generating avenues for such victims and also play a role in creating awareness to the community in general on violence against women and its impact on the person, the family and community.

 The 2^nd phase of the Centre commenced in January 2010, which will provide facilities for Diri Daru Piyasa – a centre exclusively for children with Down syndrome and the MJF Centre for therapy and vocational training for differently abled youth. Work on the 2^nd phase in progressing on schedule and is expected to be completed by Mid May 2010. The MJF Foundation team meets every week at the site to review the progress of work. Once completed these 2 Centres will support nearly 100 disabled children/youth.

     In the meantime the preliminary plan and deigns on the 3^rd  and 4^th phase which will inched the MJF Kids center for Moratuwa, a replication of the highly successful MJF Kids programme in Peliyagoda, A community reception facility and a Family Peace and counseling Centre are being finalized and are expected to be commenced after May this year.

It was 25 years ago that the Leprosy Hospital in Wattala had a new patient admitted to the Hospital and at the same time there are patients who were brought in 25 or many years ago while they were in their childhood. 

However, other than a few most of these ladies spend their time doing nothing… Recently when the MJF Charitable Foundation Staff visited the hospital had a discussion with these Ladies to see how they could spend their time useful, they discovered that all of them other than one lady whose legs are amputated can learn to sew and start sewing Pillow Cases, Curtains to the windows that never have been curtained, their house coats, etc….

The MJF Charitable Foundation donated a sewing machine with motor fixed to it so that there’s no peddling. you will see in the pictures given below the smiles of hope.

The MJF Charitable Foundation’s next task is to get mobility for two ladies who are unable to walk.

When the MJF Team visited the Holyrood Primary School site on the 15th March, the construction was at roof level. The school is getting into shape as expected and will be completed on schedule by end April. The images below shows the class rooms and hall that will be availbale to the Kids once the construction is completed.

Reggie the MJF Kids Co-ordinator had a  meeting with the parents of the MJF Kids recently at the Kids home at the Peliyagoda MJF complex. Progress of the Kids, regular absentees, non attending to home works and assignemnets  were discussed with the parents. The need for the parents to more closely follow the progress of their childen both at school and the programme were re emphasized by Reggie. About 29 parents whose kids were lagging back with their work were invited for the meeting and the attendance of parents was good.

The participation of the parents  and their reciprocation towards their Kids programme at MJF has seen a significant improvment since of late which augurs well for the future of the programme.

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.