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Odel
rewards Wildlife Officers for good work
Corporate civic consciousness found new expression recently
when Sri Lanka’s iconic department store Odel rewarded
four officers of the Wildlife Department for detecting a stock
of leopard skins and the horn of a black rhinoceros.
The detection in Colombo, led to the arrests of two businessmen
for possession of four leopard skins and the horn of a black
rhinoceros earlier this year. In a spontaneous gesture of
appreciation, Odel presented the officers with cash rewards
out of the company’s CSR funds.
“As Sri Lankans, the protection, preservation and management
of our wildlife should concern us all,” said Otara Gunewardene,
CEO of Odel. “Many people are quick to complain, but
few make an effort to show appreciation for good work, and
we felt this detection was worthy of acknowledgement.”
“We were pleased to reward these officers because detections
such as theirs are pivotal to prevent the wanton destruction
of wildlife for commercial gain,” she added.
Wildlife Ranger (Supra Grade) P.F. Upali Padmasiri, Wildlife
Ranger H. Bultjens, Wildlife Guard C.R. Ratnayake and Driver
C. Jayatissa were the officers rewarded by Odel.
The funds came from the Odel Foundation which plans and executes
all corporate social responsibility initiatives of the company.
Among the sources of funding for the Foundation is a percentage
of profit on the sale of items in the Odel ‘Nature Range’
of products. Other CSR initiatives undertaken by the Foundation
include an elephant adoption programme, beach clean-ups and
building houses for Tsunami victims.
Odel also promotes a special project named ‘Embark,’
to improve the quality of life of animals. Launched as a personal
initiative of Otara Gunewardene, it aims to prevent cruelty
to animals in Sri Lanka by creating awareness, raising funds
and simultaneously organising individual projects to sterilize
and vaccinate street dogs in conjunction with other animal
welfare organisations. Since its formation, the Embark team
has been committed to controlling the stray dog population
in order to control rabies. The campaign has to date benefited
over 1600 dogs.
Sri Lanka’s most famous and successful retail store Odel,
offers its customers a range of shopping products from high
fashion clothing and accessories to homeware and leisure products,
from gourmet food and wines to exotic jewellery and perfumes.
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