Welfare programmes for crime victims

Jennifer Hudson's family announced Thursday a new foundation for families of murder victims. The Hudson-King Foundation for families of slain victims is named in honour of the singer-actress' slain mother Darnell Hudson Donerson, brother Jason Hudson and nephew Julian King. The specific purpose of the foundation is to care for the needs of families who have lost relations to a violent crime, the family says in a statement......'.

This is not a part of an article or a news item that appeared in one of the local newspapers. It is a news item that appeared in the People Magazine's latest issue. You may think why I am talking about something that appeared in a foreign magazine that is popular for gossips/fashion of foreign celebrities. Like human beings learning things until their death, we have something good to take from everywhere and from everyone in the world. The problem is we are taking the worst part of everything and everyone especially when it comes from the West.

Let us see why something that appeared in the People's Magazine is very relevant to Sri Lanka. Here in Sri Lanka many institutions and organisations including the Social Services and Social Welfare Ministry take care of the prisoners and their families.

At least many institutions and organisations have already showed an interest to do so. But how about crime victims?.

"We can see the Government constantly offers compensation for the victims whenever a brutal crime such as a bomb blast take place. How about the victims of murders? The victims of rape, the future of the families left without guardians (when they get killed from a bomb blast).

There is no institution or organisation to look after the victims. It is the victims who need care and support. The prisoners have the prison officials and the staff to look after them. The prisoners' families have no grief because they know that their family member (the prisoner)is alive and in safe hands. Perhaps he could be killed (when the victims's party take revenge) if he stays at home.

But how about the victims of murder and other crimes? They lead a very happy life with the family members and suddenly are left without a family member or any of them. At this moment they do not know what to do, whom to trust and what will happen to them the next second. It is like you are suddenly landed on a strange planet totally different from earth. Long time family friends and even close relations instantly become your enemies when the safety walls broke down. The victims become very vulnerable.

Both having money and not having money or being pretty and not pretty (for women) become a problem when they become victims. Only victims of the crime can feel this, but many of them cannot describe it in words.

When the victims is a woman, the situation goes from bad to worse. Only a handful of crime victims who have very strong personalities by birth, face the tragedy successfully, recover quickly and lead a normal life. Counseling alone cannot save the others.

Here in Sri Lanka we have a higher number of crime victims than prisoners. What happened to the families which were left without their family members at the bomb blasts started from Kebithigollewa? What happened to the only child left without any other family member after the Delgoda massacre? What happened to the murder victims of other murders such as Hokandara, Ja-Ela etc ? No one keeps an eye on them and no one knows what is happening to them. It will comes into limelight again only if they get killed.

We can make a successful strategy to ensure the well-being of crime victims. There are thousands of INGOs and NGOs working in Sri Lanka. Some of them are doing very irrelevant projects and programmes according to the Social Services and Social Welfare Deputy Minister Lionel Premasiri. How about assigning them to do welfare programmes for crime victims. First of all we need a complete data base on crime victims. Projects and programmes should be aimed at those who desperately require them.