The unique Corporate Social Responsibility program of People's Bank.

The People's Bank "Sisu Udana Vishishtayo" grand awards ceremony honoring the most out standing youth of the country came alive on the 11h of July 2005 at the BMICH in Colombo. 130 profoundly talented youngsters from schools across the country received awards in recognition of their achievements in the fields of sports, drama, music, oratory, art, environment conservation and technology /computer software.
People's Bank also announced the names of the 14 "Sisu Udana Vishishtayo" National Award winners at a grand awards ceremony held at the BMICH in Colombo . The 14 national award winners, selected from among the 130 district winners, will receive their awards at today's grand felicitation ceremony. Meanwhile, 130 profoundly talented youngsters from schools across the country will also receive awards in recognition of their achievements in the fields of sports, drama, music, oratory, art, environment conservation and technology /computer software.

The "Sisu Udana Vishishtayo" National Awards scheme reached its final stages of judging with a panel of high profile judges selecting 14 national level winners. The national winners were announced at the "Sisu Udana Vishishtayo" grand finale which was held on the 11th July 2005. Meanwhile, the selection of 130 district level winners was conducted at district level through a panel of leading citizens in each of the 25 districts on the basis of 5 per district and ten winners from the Colombo district. The names of the district winners were put together to a distinguished and high profile panel of national judges who initially selected 10 national winners. However, given the quality and the intense level of competition that appeared to exist between the applications received, the national judges eventually selected 14 national winners.

People's Bank "Sisu Udana Vishishtayo" attracted 15980 applications during the 2 week time period where applications were invited. A noticeable and significant feature among these applications was the depth and extent of skills and capabilities of the children who had applied from all over Sri Lanka . The bank also had approximately 2000 applications coming in from the Northern Province which was a very encouraging sign to the organizers of the event. The organizers were also extremely happy that a large number of Sri Lankan students applied for recognition under this scheme. People's Bank specifically states while only 130 can be selected as district winners basically all children who have applied are in a sense, considered as winners. Every child who has applied under this scheme is being recognized by People's Bank in an appropriate fashion and it is the banks hope that all these children including those who were not successful in bagging any awards this year, would yet continue to develop their skills, talents and capabilities. By doing so not only would they be a credit to their families, loved ones and schools, but they will also bring honor to Sri Lanka in the future.

The whole concept of this special scheme was to encourage the development of extra curricular activities and capabilities among school children, leading to the development of a well rounded personality on the basis of developing well balanced future leaders for our nation.

The panel of national judges included a distinguished list that comprised of Mr. Jayampathy Bandaranayake, the Deputy Chairman of Ceylon Tobacco and a Director of SEMA. Dr. A H Sheriffdeen the eminent surgeon, Mr. M. Muralitharan - Sri Lanka's very special world record holder, Prof. Tilak Hettiarachchi the Vice Chancellor of the Colombo University, Prof. Manouri Senanayake the Professor of Pediatrics at the Colombo Medical College and Senior Consultant of the Lady Ridgeway hospital, Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy an internationally renowned Human Rights and Women's Rights Leader. Dr. Ranee Jayamaha, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Mrs. Sumithra Peiris the respected and renowned film producer and directoress.