Allianz Insurance and SOS Children’s Villages Empower Youth in Sri Lanka.

Allianz Insurance Lanka Limited joined hands with SOS Children’s Villages, Sri Lanka to empower youth with IT skills that will enhance their career development. This program is called ‘Shape the World of Tomorrow’ and is part of Youth Can which is a global initiative by SOS Children’s Villages that strives to equip youth around the world with skills that would enable them to lead an independent life.
Through this partnership, Allianz Lanka expects to provide 100 youth between the ages 14 to 19 with essential IT skills by giving them access to a globally recognized International Computer Driving License (ICDL) programme. The beneficiaries will be youth who grew up at SOS Children’s Villages and ones from SOS Family Strengthening Programme in Sri Lanka. Allianz Lanka hopes to equip all 100 youth with ICDL by the year 2023. Allianz Lanka had recently won the Allianz Social innovation Fund worth €10,000 offered by its parent company Allianz SE, and will be utilizing it for this.
The corporate partnership was signed at SOS Children’s Village in Piliyandala by Mr. Divakar Ratnadurai, National Director of SOS Children’s Villages, Sri Lanka and Mr. Gany Subramaniam, CEO of Allianz Insurance Lanka Limited. 
At this event Mr. Divakar Ratnadurai stated, “We would like to thank Allianz Lanka for partnering with us and supporting our youth empowerment initiatives. The ‘Shape the World of Tomorrow’ program uses Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to foster education and self-development among children and youth of SOS Children’s Villages, Sri Lanka. This is part of our wider ‘Digital Villages’ strategy which provides children, young people, and caregivers with digital literacy training and access to ICT resources to support education, employability, training, and capacity building.”
Mr. Gany Subramaniam had this to say at the event, “Youth empowerment remains one of the key focus areas of Allianz’s community outreach efforts around the world. In line with that, we are excited to partner with SOS Children’s Villages, Sri Lanka yet again and help them take the ICDL program to more young adults across the island. Helping them get trained and gain a globally recognized certification that is supported by governments, computer societies, international organizations, and commercial corporations alike. We believe that this will go a long way in supporting them in successfully managing the transition from school to independent adulthood.”
Apart from the heads of both organizations, other representatives at the event included, Gayantha Dalpadado, Director - Head of Fund Development and Communications; Kapila Gunwardhana, Director - National Youth Care; and Nipunika Ruhunage, Assistant Director - Corporate Partnerships from SOS Children’s Villages, Sri Lanka; and Mangala Bandara, Chief Marketing Officer; Rienzie De Silva, Assistant Manager - Market Management, and Annesista Jeyakanthan, Executive - Corporate Communications from Allianz Insurance Lanka Limited.