{"id":5017,"date":"2025-12-08T14:18:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/?p=5017"},"modified":"2025-12-08T15:32:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T10:02:04","slug":"john-keells-foundation-marks-international-day-for-the-elimination-of-violence-against-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/index.php\/2025\/12\/08\/john-keells-foundation-marks-international-day-for-the-elimination-of-violence-against-women\/","title":{"rendered":"John Keells Foundation Marks International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, John Keells Foundation (JKF) reaffirmed its long\u2011standing commitment to combatting gender\u2011based violence and child abuse through its flagship initiative, Project WAVE (Working Against Violence through Education).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since its launch in November 2014, Project WAVE has reached over 5.8 million individuals, including employees of the John Keells Group, specific groups such as police officers, lawyers, university students, schoolchildren, teachers, parents, and the wider public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year\u2019s campaign was rolled out under the theme \u201cUNiTE to Take Action Against Violence\u201d, adopting a multi\u2011pronged approach that included internal awareness creation towards preventing and addressing gender based violence (through both awareness sessions as well as an all staff email campaign), a sustained social media campaign and community awareness programmes scheduled across business locations of the John Keells Group. All activities reinforce practical, proactive and everyday actions that individuals can take to prevent or address violence. A symbolic white ribbon\u2011pinning ceremony was also held with senior management and project staff, underscoring solidarity with survivors and commitment to ending violence. In addition, JKF\u2019s internal e\u2011learning module as adapted for external audiences will soon be launched via the JKF\u2019s e\u2011learning platform, with plans to extend access to universities and community groups.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Image-01-GBV-Awareness-Session-Staff-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5019\" style=\"width:666px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Image-01-GBV-Awareness-Session-Staff-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Image-01-GBV-Awareness-Session-Staff-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Image-01-GBV-Awareness-Session-Staff-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Image-01-GBV-Awareness-Session-Staff-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Image-01-GBV-Awareness-Session-Staff.jpeg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Awareness session on GBV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Krishan Balendra, Chairperson of the John Keells Group, in a message addressed to Group staff on the international day noted, \u201cWe operate on a zero-tolerance approach to any form of sexual harassment and remain steadfast in our commitment to fostering a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment for all employees. We also recognise that increasing female participation in the workplace is central to building a truly inclusive culture, and at John Keells Group this remains a key DE&amp;I priority alongside our efforts to eliminate GBV. Our CSR initiatives have played a vital role in internalising these values within and outside the Group.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Carmeline Jayasuriya, Head of CSR of the John Keells Group commented, \u201cOver the past 11 years since the launch of Project WAVE, much progress has been made in raising awareness, challenging misconceptions and biases, and strengthening ecosystems towards combatting GBV and child abuse. It has been a challenging course but we are encouraged by the progress made and remain committed to our mission of empowering a healthy and progressive Sri Lanka where all our citizens can work towards their aspirations and potential, unhindered by negative influences and social barriers\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the International Day serves as a focal point for global collective action, JKF\u2019s efforts extend well beyond this annual observance. Throughout the year, Project WAVE continues to collaborate with its partners and volunteers to deliver ongoing staff awareness and training, community awareness and empowerment, and specialised training of trainer programmes for law enforcement and other stakeholders, ensuring sustained impact across diverse groups in keeping with its vision `Empowering the Nation for Tomorrow\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Education, Community &amp; Livelihoods, Social Health &amp; Cohesion, and Biodiversity are the four focus areas of John Keells Foundation &#8211; the CSR entity of John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH), largest company listed on the CSE in terms of market capitalization operating over 80 companies in 7 diverse industry sectors. With a history of over 150 years, the John Keells Group provides employment to over 18,000 persons and has been ranked as Sri Lanka&#8217;s &#8216;Most Respected Entity&#8217; for the last 20 Years by LMD magazine. JKH has placed first for the fourth consecutive year in the &#8216;Transparency in Corporate Reporting Assessment&#8217; by Transparency International Sri Lanka.&nbsp; Whilst being a full member of the World Economic Forum and a participant of the UN Global Compact, JKH drives its CSR vision of `Empowering the Nation for Tomorrow\u2019 through John Keells Foundation and through the social entrepreneurship initiative, \u2018Plasticcycle\u2019, which is a catalyst in significantly reducing plastic pollution in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Photo Captions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Group Chairperson and JKH Heads of Department at White ribbon pinning to mark the International Day<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, John Keells Foundation (JKF) reaffirmed its long\u2011standing commitment to combatting gender\u2011based violence and child abuse through its flagship initiative, Project WAVE (Working Against Violence through Education). Since its launch in November 2014, Project WAVE has reached over 5.8 million individuals, including [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fintechnews.lk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}