The International Women’s Day on 8th of March, is a day to reflect on the extraordinary achievements
of women, who drive change while contributing to the social, economic, and cultural progress of a
country.
John Keells Foundation (JKF) – the corporate responsibility entity of the John Keells Group – is
dedicated to creating gender empowerment through its many initiatives within 6 focus areas which are
aligned with the Group’s CSR vision of ‘Empowering the Nation for Tomorrow’. While JKF’s varied
programmes target multiple underserved communities, gender empowerment is a crosscutting theme.
Speaking at a Women’s Leadership Forum entitled `BreakTheBias for a Better Tomorrow’ organized
by the Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce on 15th March 2022, Carmeline Jayasuriya, Head
of CSR and JKF, said, “When women are empowered to be safe, self-reliant and financially stable, the
resultant socio-economic impact benefits not only themselves but their children, family and
community as a whole. As such, our programmes focus on promoting skills, livelihoods and market
opportunities for women as well as building stronger ecosystems to tackle deeply ingrained and
inhibiting issues such as gender stereotyping, discrimination and harassment.”
Under JKF’s livelihood development programmes such as John Keells Praja Shakthi, many Micro,
Small and Medium sized Enterprises – especially women-led enterprises – are supported in improving
access to finance, value chains and markets.
Under the Foundation’s Education pillar – supporting women in pursuing higher education and
empowering them with skills towards enhancing their career has been a key objective.
‘John Keells English Language Scholarship Programme’ is aimed at enhancing the English
communication, ICT and soft skills of selected youth, directly benefitting over 17,700 of which a
majority are females.
JKF’s ‘Skill into Progress’ (SKIP) programme is a supply chain management initiative aimed at
empowering selected suppliers of the John Keells Group to be competitive in a pandemic-challenged
economy.
Under Health, JKF Combats gender-based violence (GBV) and child abuse through awareness
creation while reinforcing enabling social structures. “Project WAVE” (Working Against Violence
through Education) is a long-term project encompassing sensitization and training for Group
employees, police officers, lawyers, teachers, and the public.
As JKF works on uplifting the lives of disadvantaged communities across the country under its vision
of ‘Empowering the Nation for Tomorrow’, gender empowerment will continue to be an integral and
cross-cutting theme of development initiatives undertaken to empower women with skills, knowledge,
and opportunities to be socially and economically independent.
Livelihood Development, Education and Health are three of the six focus areas of John Keells
Foundation – the CSR entity of John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH), a company listed in the Colombo
Stock Exchange operating over 70 companies in 7 diverse industry sectors. With a history of over 150
years, John Keells Group has been ranked as Sri Lanka’s ‘Most Respected Entity’ for the last 16 Years
by LMD Magazine. Whilst being a full member of the World Economic Forum and a Participant of
the UN Global Compact, JKH drives its CSR vision of “Empowering the Nation for Tomorrow”
through John Keells Foundation and through the social entrepreneurship initiative, ‘Plasticcycle’,
which is a catalyst in significantly reducing plastic pollution in Sri Lanka.