Nearly 30,000 children under 18 in welfare villages
Nadira Gunatilleke
There are nearly 30,000 children under the age of 18 staying in
welfare villages and transit centres. Around 850 have lost one or both
parents.
The Probation and Child Care Services Department and Provincial
Departments hold the responsibility of caring for those children,
Probation and Child Care Services Commissioner D.M.S. Abeygunawardana
told the Daily News yesterday. Abeygunawardana said these children are
staying in welfare villages and transit camps with their relatives.
The Department identified the children living among IDPs with the
assistance of Probation and Child Care Services Department, Vavuniya
branch and arrangements will be made to register all children and gather
data on them. Counselling has been provided for them, Abeygunawardana
said.
According to Abeygunawardana these children will not be separated
from their relatives because those children need guardians and they are
safe with them.
At a later stage, the Department will identify the `able persons’
(from the relatives whom the children live with) and give them away to
them legally. The number of children who have lost one or both parents
can increase when the final count is made.
Arrangements have been made to develop a location at Vavuniya as a
state run children’s home to accommodate around 350 children who had
been rescued from two children’s homes at Kilinochchi and Vavuniya. They
will be given professional counselling, he said.
The Department has already provided 5,000 school books and Rs.
100,000, worth school and educational equipment to the children in
welfare villages and transit camps, he added.
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