Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka, as part of its CSR campaign, hosted the CEO’s of many successful local and multinational organizations on the 10^th of December 2010 to a ‘Breakfast of Champions’. The second event held in a series that HFHSL hopes to host on the practices of corporate sustainability, this event focused on the aspect of the impact of volunteerism on its employees, and the organisation as a whole. The event brought together many top players in their respective industries, with companies like Singapore Airlines, Holcim, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, APL, Colombo Stock Exchange, Bartleets Group of Companies, Brandix, London Stock Exchange, Hayleys, CEAT, CIDA, and Horana Plantation PLC represented. The keynote address for the day was made by Mr. Tony Weerasinghe, CEO of Millennium IT, a global leader in innovative solutions for many power houses in the capital markets industry. The address was followed by an ‘interview’ of Otara Gunawardena, CEO of ODEL, one of the leading retail stores in the country, and Brand Ambassador of HFHSL, by Tony Senewiratne.

Tony Weerasinghe spoke about the way CSR is approached by many corporations. More often than not, many are satisfied by donating a certain sum of money each year as their CSR. But, he said, each company has the potential to bring about a change in the society as well. He spoke of the idea of e-Channelling as an example, and the objections that he faced before he started it. Today, it has become an extremely profitable venture, which has solved the problem of getting appointments with doctor’s to a great deal.

Otara Gunawardane, on answering questions raised by Tony Senewiratne, spoke about how ODEL got involved with HFHSL at the time of the Tsunami in 2004, and the events that culminated to her becoming one of the Brand Ambassadors for them. She also spoke about the challenges that she faced in motivating her employees to start volunteering to build homes through Habitat, and how their opinions and viewpoints changed after seeing the conditions the homeowners lived in and meeting those people whom they were building for.

The floor was then open for comments and questions, during which Nick Nicoloau, CEO-HSBC, spoke on the commitment HSBC expects from each employee for CSR work, as well as the impact he has seen that it has on the individual and the company as a whole. He spoke of the company policy they have, where each employee needs to donate 2.5 hours a year for a CSR project. Elias Abraham, CEO-APL, Rathika de Silva, Vice President, Sustainable Development-Holcim and Samanthie Gunasekera, Head of HR-MIT, all spoke on the relationship between HFHSL and their respective companies and the benefits they have derived from the partnership. Elias spoke of the chance meeting he had with Tony Senewiratne, and how that led to the mutually beneficial partnership of providing old containers to be re-modeled into mobile libraries. Samanthie mentioned how they were able to identify the leadership skills among their employees through the volunteer program, as well as identify those who were motivated and could think innovatively. She said one of the key benefits of volunteering through Habitat was that all of them could see a tangible final product after all their hard work.

The event concluded on a successful note, and we are confident it will be the beginning of many more successes in the future.