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| Sunday, 19 January 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Mayura Community Project : Disabled given new 'lease of life' by CCF Intl.
Most people tend to believe that the disabled are a burden to our country and the society. But the project we visited in the Moneragala District proved how they help such disabled persons to be proud and happy citizens of the country, while at the same time providing them with a livelihood to be self-supportive. This is a special article written to show how successfully our disabled persons have been made to be productive citizens of Sri Lanka. "My husband was injured by a gunshot when he went to the chena about two years back. The doctors say that the injury to his spinal column cannot be corrected by surgery. My husband has been immobilized since then. He was the sole breadwinner of our family. But since this accident everything had to be provided at his bedside. Our four children and the two of us have no other means of survival. Our major worry is the education of the four children. Can someone please offer us help?" The above lamentation was from Mrs. D. M. Appuhamy, loving wife of a disabled farmer of Mahakalugolla, Pallegama in the Moneragala District. Their woe has not been heard by any organization other than the CCF affiliated 'Mayura Community Project' of Siyambalanduwa. It is vital that the rehabilitation of the disabled in societies should get prime attention. However, institutions providing such care are very rare in Sri Lanka. It looks, that this issue has not been given its due attention by the Government and by numerous private organizations.
The disabled could be classified as those born with disabilities and those who were born well and became disabled at a later date in life. Both these groups are mostly found in rural areas. The reason being, that there are numerous constraints for such disabled persons to get to the Urban Areas for treatment. Moneragala can thus be regarded, as an undeveloped, poverty- stricken district, having the highest number of disabled persons. The CCF affiliated 'Mayura Community Project' of Siyambalanduwa has launched several special programs to address the needs of these disabled who never drew attention of the Government or other private organizations. Only CCF International supplies the funds needed for these projects. Incurables "All our projects are targeted at children and their families, from among the poorest of the poor families in each District." said, K. L. P. Jayawardena, a Program Officer of CCF - Sri Lanka, as the co-ordinator of the 'Mayura Community Project.' In the District of Moneragala alone, there are 2,100 families who are indirect beneficiaries enroled with CCF. These children and families receive financial and numerous other support for their preschool and school education, health and community based rehabilitation of the disabled. Jayawardena also said, "This is one of our long-term programs. We are empowering the parents and communities to ensure the continuation of these programs." According to Jayawardena, this is a unique project in the Moneragala District. Such projects are conducted in two zonal areas of Moneragala, namely, Kataragama and Siyambalanduwa. In the zonal area of Siyambalanduwa, the villages of Buddhama, Ethimale, Kongaspitiya and Mahakalugolla are served under this project. The program which aims at the development of the community through the development of the child, has implemented several special programs to rehabilitate the disabled persons in the areas mentioned above. In the Moneragala District, 45 disabled children have been identified who are either labelled as incurable or who have never received any treatment for their disability. All these children have received the full attention of the CCF affiliated 'Mayura Community Project' and it is aimed at converting their disabilities to gainful productivity. Accordingly, programs are conducted to educate and train those who can be rehabilitated and to provide all necessary support by way of treatment. "During our visit to Moneragala to get a first-hand knowledge of how these projects work, we were able to meet some of the children and parents of this disabled group at the vocational training centre at Mahakalugolla in Pottuvil Road, for the partially disabled children." Chinthaka Bandara, Manager of the CCF affiliated 'Mayura Community Project' said. "They are trained to make envelops here, but they still live in their own community, because ours is a community-based rehabilitation program." The eight-year-old Sandun Kumara is a slow learner and his brain development is that of an eight-month-old child. He, who suffers from 'Locked knees,' should receive the attention of all of us. His mother, Premawathie, said in tear-filled eyes, "I would be ever grateful if his disability could at least be minimized." Relief Nilanthi Pushpalatha, is another girl child whom we came across during our projects visit. She is also a slow learner, with difficulty in speech and is five years of age, from the Buddhama Village. Her mother Gnanawathie says that she has one more disabled child in her family. The other child Jayasinghe, has been the target of unwanted comments from the community and this has demoralised the child very much. A. M. Ariyawathie of Buddhama, who has a disabled son, Udayantha Samarajeewa said, "My child got an epileptic fit when he was just four days old and his nerves had got weak and as a result the whole family is now suffering. It would be a great merit if someone could lend us a helping hand." Almost all the families and relations of the disabled children and adults whom we met on this tour, made a humble request from us. That was, to alert the relevant government and private organisational authorities about the needs of these helpless families who struggle with their disabled family members and to bring some relief. During this visit, we also met Sunil Kannangara, a veteran rehabilitation officer, who serves as the Rehabilitation Officer of the CCF projects. He said, "Our main aim of this project activity is to give confidence and training to disabled persons, to be useful citizens so that the community will no longer feel that they are a burden to the society. These persons should rightly be addressed as slow learners." Kannangara also said, "The survey I have conducted on this issue has shown that there are about 45 totally disabled persons in the Divisional Secretariat area of Siyambalanduwa in the Moneragala District. It has been revealed, that illiteracy, ignorance, carelessness and poverty are the major factors for disability. So, we started educating everyone, from schoolchildren to the senior citizens, as to how people could be disabled due to the above reasons. Most of these training programs are conducted through CCF affiliated parent committees in the respective villages." "We give priority to the use of physiotherapy clinics and avoid unnecessary medication. At the same time we provide suitable vocational education and organize self-employment for those under our care. The need for wheel chairs, crutches and specialist consultations and at times surgery, are some essential items in the rehabilitation process of these persons. The cost of the above are unbearable for the project and it would be very much appreciated if commercial organizations or philanthropists could come to our help in these needs," Kannangara in an public appeal, said. Gamini Pinnalawatta, the National Director, of the CCF-Sri Lanka explained to us that the organization is conducting similar and many other projects in 11 districts, namely in Anuradhapura, Galle, Hambantota, Kegalle, Kurunegala, Matale, Moneragala, Nuwara Eliya, Polonnaruwa, Puttalam and Trincomalee. CCF-Sri Lanka has the mission of promoting the total well-being of Sri Lanka's needy, vulnerable children, their families and their communities, through a process that empowers parents and communities to implement with accountability and transparency, high quality programs directed at the: Holistic Development of Children; Empowerment and capacity-building of parents and families; and, Mobilization of communities towards child well-being, resulting in a strong civil society where families lead the development process of their communities. Support services Pinnalawatta said, "CCF-International is spending around Rs. 120 million per annum for the implementation of these projects. One of the unique features of CCF is that all funds are directly remitted to the bank accounts of the Parents' Committees, of the beneficiary children, who manage the total activities of each project. These are independent projects and our role at the National Office is to guide and train them in the good governance and management of the projects. The 'Mayura Community Project' is one such project. The average project life is stipulated to be around 12 to 15 years. During this period we guide and provide all the support services for the community to empower themselves to continue as strong bodies to carry on the community development process initiated by the CCF. As an initial requirement, CCF has supported the construction of toilets to more than 70% of the 12,000 families and 65% of the families now enjoy the facility of clean drinking water. The number of total beneficiaries amounts to 100,000. The National Director, Pinnalawatta has given a new life and a re-awakening to CCF-Sri Lanka. All world religions have acknowledged the need to serve the poor and the disabled in society. Whatever information you wish to get about this project, or any other project of CCF could be obtained from the National Director, CCF-Sri Lanka, 48, Vajira Road, Bambalapitiya, Colombo 00400 or on telephone 01-501238. We earnestly request to support our activities to the needy and vulnerable children of Sri Lanka. Nihal P. Abeysinghe |
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