Citi Sri Lanka focuses on community development and employee volunteerism, especially in tsunami affected areas
Business Presence
Citi Sri Lanka was established in 1979, and now has a consumer and corporate customer base of more than 2,000 accounts. With one branch in Colombo and about 100 employees, Citi Sri Lanka offers a full range of corporate and investment banking services and is an AAA-rated commercial bank.
Citizenship History
After the December 2004 tsunami, Citi supported the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Employees' Trust Fund for Tsunami Affected Children with a RS.16 million (US$150,000) grant, which ensured that 150 children who lost parents continued to receive their education through cholarships. The funding also provided teacher training materials, books and computers for 26 schools.
In 2005, Citi provided RS.5 million (US$50,000) to Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka to construct a building training centre in Galle, one of the areas worst hit by the tsunami. The centre has helped train over 1,000 skilled and semi-skilled workers.
In November 2006, as part of Citi's first Global Community Day, 53 volunteers helped to build three houses in the southern coastal village of Nanatota, Kosgoda in Galle.
Contributing Sweat Equity for New Homeowners
In November 2007, 65 Citi Sri Lanka volunteers (74% of permanent staff) travelled to a village on the south west coast to help build houses for a fishing community that had been impacted by the tsunami and still lacked adequate shelter and common recreational areas.
This was part of a project by Habitat for Humanity www.hfhsl.org to build homes in Minnerithenna Eliya, Kalutara. Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka has helped build more than 8,800 houses since 1994 and is the country's largest home-builder after the government.
As part of the company's Global Community Day, the Citi volunteers divided into teams, with two teams focusing on building two houses on land allocated for new villagers. Apart from the improved location, the homes included a small plot of land, which each homeowner can use for a home garden to increase their selfsufficiency.
The third Citi volunteer team manually laid turf for a children's play area that is now the heart of the village's sporting activities, and also planted trees around the new recreational area to provide shade and to prevent soil erosion.
Citi Sri Lanka volunteers formed teams to build two new homes and a recreational area in Minnerithenna Eliya, Kalutara, a tsunamiaffected area.
