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The village, officially opened in March, was funded by the travel retail industry. |
SRI LANKA. The Travel Retail Village in Palliyawatta, Sri Lanka will benefit from a new library as the community continues its recovery from the devastating tsunami of December 26 2004.
Donations from the travel retail industry enabled the community of 100 people to be re-housed in a new inland settlement, which officially opened on 16 March. The funding was handled by the Alpha Sri Lanka Tsunami Relief Fund, driven by industry executives Paul Topping and Rakhita Jayawardena.
The idea for the library came from Ravi, a duty manager at Alpha Orient Lanka’s Arrivals shop at Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport. It will have a special emphasis on children’s education.
For a short period, the books will be housed at the office of Village head man Chrisantha, until the Village’s community centre is completed. TFWA Care, the charitable organisation set up by Tax Free World Association, will help fund the community centre, named in memory of TFWA Conferences and Research Director Linda Hopkins, who died in December.
Ravi and the Alpha Orient Lanka team have collected almost 500 books so far from colleagues and well-wishers. The target is to collect 10,000 books by December.
Apart from books, the committee also hopes to make available the daily newspapers of Sri Lanka, international magazines such as National Geographic and Time, computers with Internet connectivity and a collection of recreational games such as chess. These measures will create a library not just for the Travel Retail Village but for the surrounding villages of the neighbourhood.
Team Shakthi (one of the four shift teams at Alpha Orient Lanka’s duty free shops) also generously contributed all their winnings on a recent scheme named ‘win a million’. Team Shakthi not only donated all the winnings towards purchasing 80 books, but also collected 70 more books for the library.
For more details or to assist in the continuing fund-raising for the community, contact Alpha Asia Managing Director Paul Topping at ptopping@alpha-group.com
MORE STORIES ON THE TRAVEL RETAIL VILLAGE
TFWA Care announces Travel Retail Village memorial to Linda Hopkins – 17/05/06
Picture Gallery: Travel Retail Village becomes a reality – 24/03/06
Travel Retail Village opens as tsunami recovery project becomes ‘a dream come true’ – 16/03/06
Poignant scenes as Travel Retail Village celebrates soft opening in Sri Lanka – 12/01/06
