New head office building:

A boon for women and children

Sarath Malalasekera

“Plan Sri Lanka” will officially hand over the newly-built Child Friendly District Head Office for the Children and Women’s Bureau in Anuradhapura to the Sri Lanka Police today. It will be a boon for women and children in Anuradhapura District.

The District Office will become the coordinating head office of the Children and Women Desks of 23 Police Stations in the Anuradhapura District.

North Central Provincial Council Chief Minister Berty Premalal Dissanayake and Plan Sri Lanka Country Director Han Dijsellbloem will be the chief guests on the occasion.

Children and Women Bureau in Anuradhapura was built at a cost of Rs.7 million, the “Child-Friendly” district head office consists of modern facilities plus special rooms and areas for children and women who seek Police assistance.

It has a separate entrance away from the main Police Station- which can be identified by any person including a child and there’s also well-trained, friendly staff to handle children’s and women’s issues. This ensures the privacy of the victims.

For Children, there are play areas and various other facilities too, so that they will not feel that they are in a Police Station. The new facility is also geared to conduct training and awareness programmes on children and women’s issues.

There is also a special accommodation unit for women and children who come to the city and are unable to return home on the same day. To support children with various aesthetic skills, one of the up stair halls has been allocated as a concert room for children.

The foundation stone laying ceremony for this building was held in 2006, in keeping with Plan’s child-centred approach, the children in the area got involved in the project design an implementation process. Women and Children were invited to participate in formulating the design and their inputs were incorporated into the final design of the building complex.

The Provincial Engineering Office in the North Central Province was in charge of the construction.

Among those who have contributed towards making this project a reality are Chief Minister Dissanayake, Anuradhapura Senior SP Ananda Hettiarachchi, Chief Inspector Sarath Prema, HQI Anuradhapura, Women’s Sub Inspector T.B. Kalyani, SI Cyril Stephen, Sergeant Gamage of the Anuradhapura Police Station and former OIC of the Galkiriyagama Police Station Jayantha.