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| Sunday, 2 October 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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A haven for street children by Ranga Chandrarathne
Raja Meduraka Ipadi Sitiyanam Numbath Rajeki Puthune, Hirikada Bagena Polathu Igilei Ada Numbe Siri Yahane, Heenen Hina novi Ma Handavapan me rayame" (If you were born in a palace, my son, you're also a king but now the cadjan leaves fly over your head exposing you to harsh rain water on our wattle and daub house. Don't smile in your dreams to make me sad in this lonely night) - a mother's lament on a rainy night. This popular song sung by Malini Bulathsinhala says everything about the plight of a poor mother who helplessly looks at the flying cadjan leaves exposing them to the rain. However, thousands of street children in Sri Lanka do not even have mothers to lament for them. Instead they have only the desolate and uncanny street waiting, as if to devour them. The phenomenon of street children is common to most Asian countries and although sociological research has been done on the subject. Common scenario For instance, it was discovered that most of the street children are being used as drug haulers and are also engaged in begging in the city of Colombo. They are being used as child labourers in loading and unloading goods at the Pettah market. Street children are seen employed at restaurants, hotels and even work in houses as domestic aids.
Cycles of violence linked to ethnic, political, economic and social factors experienced particularly over the last 20 years, resulted in breeding a generation of street children. Street children NGOs estimate 2,000 street living and street-working children in Colombo city (with 5,000 children at risk) and 2,500 outside Colombo (with 5000 at risk). Rapid progress is needed in accepting and implementing children's rights through the introduction, amendment of legislation, installation of monitoring mechanisms, establishment of administrative structures, and exposure of child abuse by NGOs and the media. Inclusion of street children as a category in the 1990 - initiated the National Plan of Action for Children. Launch of the Street Children Network (SCN) in December 1996, produced a directory of street children NGOs in 1998. Establishment of: National Child Protection Authority (1999); Child Abuse Desks at police stations; 24-hour child abuse hotline, Amendment to crime and education-related legislation, Extensive range of NGO services, including provision of birth certificates and identity cards, poverty alleviation programmes, micro-enterprises, formal and non-formal education and recreation. CSR is concerned about the single-parent families where either the mother or the father is employed in the Middle East. Especially in the case of mothers employed abroad, children are left to themselves and are exposed to abuse, often at the hands of their relatives. This situation has led to a host of problems resulting in a social crisis. It has been estimated that more than one hundred thousand women in the age group 20-45, go abroad seeking lucrative employment depriving motherly care for more than one hundred thousand households per year. Though they earn foreign currency for the nation, they are being subjected to gross violation of human rights abroad. They also lead a miserable life abroad. CSR is of the view that migrant workers should be given the right to vote at elections and it will make a big difference. However, further work is required in areas such as out of school children, child labour, and children in conflict with the law and children in especially difficult circumstances. It is in this backdrop that CSR Farm and Training Centre, which is a campus of the Centre for Society and Religion, was set up as a self-sustained community. It was built on an extent of several acres of land in the village of Andiambalama surrounded by lush greenery. Rev. Fr. Tissa Balasooriya donated the land for this worthy cause, which he had inherited from his ancestors. The community for children commenced its work in 1990 with several children. Fr. Balasooriya had also donated his ancestral home in Katuwapitiya to the CSR. The CSR also runs another home for boys at Talahena, Battaramulla. Well organised The facilities at Andiambalama consists of schooling and training in vocational courses such as Agriculture, Carpentry, and Construction. Inmates of the community are also helped in their class work by visiting teachers who conduct special lessons. The children are under the well-organised monitoring mechanism including two matrons and two Graduates of Agriculture who are in charge of the farm, which is also owned and managed by the community. The farm, besides providing an avenue for a host of educational activities, serves as a training centre for Agriculture, Carpentry, Construction, Motor Mechanism and Batik, Sewing depending on the age and abilities of the children. Rainwater harvesting ensures a continuous supply of water for the farm. The carpentry workshop has all the power tools. The children are also taught both Western and Eastern culinary arts and how to make ornamental and indoor plants. The other training provided in the farm are animal husbandry, rearing freshwater fish, growing organic vegetables and the farm also maintains a herbal garden containing medicinal ayuvedic plants. It also contains floriculture (green houses). The farm produces timber such as Jack, Mahogany and teak and products like cashew, horticultural products such as mango, beli, woodapple, guava and breadfruit. It is also hoping to introduce cold storage facility to helpless small-scale fishermen to find markets. The spacious conference hall and the allied facilities are available for the public at a reasonable fee and volunteers are given the opportunity of working in a farm for four hours per week that make them entitled to use the community hall and rooms free of charge. The rooms can accommodate 150 persons and the community hall is equipped with computers, Internet for writers and researchers. The visitors could get organic food, and fresh water from the wells. The farm does not use pesticides or even chemical fertilizer and a biogas plant provides fuel for cooking and facilities are available for undergraduates of Agriculture to have a hands-on practice at the farm and also to study Eco-Tourism. The CSR also plans to set up a monastery called Adyathmika Aramaya for the development of spiritual activities. All proceedings collected from the facilities are used for the welfare of the children in the community. Seminars and activities organised by the CSR are conducted with the aim of raising awareness on understanding inter-religious, inter-cultural aspects. The CSR is concerned about improving the health condition, standard of living and even the language they use and education of the inmates as they are from a lower social class. It is obvious that children from lower classes could not change themselves due to the prevailing social conditions. Rev. Fr. Balasooriya envisioned a mechanism where youth from affluent class could lend a helping hand in a movement known as "Friends of the Urban Poor" who could uplift the standards of the needy children by forming youth clubs, sports clubs, organising discussions on reflections on life, teaching them Fine Arts. Rev. Fr. Tissa Balasooriya invites Girl Guides, Scouts and those who are
waiting for O/L and A/L results to engage in this movement. (Letters be sent
to Centre for Society and Religion 281, Deans Road, Colombo 10.) |
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