Jaffna to get SOS village
The Jaffna district will get an SOS Children's village soon. SOS
Children's Villages International President Helmut Kutin said the
construction of the Jaffna center would be completed within this year.
Kutin was speaking at a press conference at the Piliyandala SOS
children's village yesterday.
Every child needs a loving home to flourish in and SOS villages have
helped many to have a home,a family to belong to and a means to grow up
with long care in the country since 1979. SOS villages are at
Piliyandala, Nuwara Eliya, Galle, Anuradhapura and Moneragala, he added.
There are over 700 young children and youth being cared for in SOS
families in 5 SOS Children's Villages.
Over 5,000 children and adults from neighbouring areas of the SOS
children's villages are direct beneficiaries of various programs such as
SOS kindergartens,medical entres, family strengthening
programs,vocational training centres and SOS Hermann Gmeiner School, he
said.
"We were able to take action with regard to unaccompanied children in
the IDP camps in the North. Nearly 200 children and youth were provided
care at the SOS Temporary Care Project," said SOS National Director
Ananda B Karunarathne.
One hundred and twenty children were reunited with their families,
extended families as well, he noted. The Jaffna SOS Children's village
will be a home for the children at the SOS temporary care project and
for many children in the North, who are at risk due to losing the care
of their families, he said. |