National Plan of Action for children will be out shortly

The National Plan of Action (NPA) for children, for which the government has allocated Rs. 200 million, is expected to be ready by the middle of this month.

The Probation and Child Care Services Department has already created awareness about the NPA among all Provincial Departments of Probation and Child Care Services.

The Provincial Departments have been requested to submit their proposals for the more co-ordinated formulation of the NPA. The NPA focuses primarily on three major areas: developing the infrastructure at children's homes, preventing child exploitation and reuniting children.

Improving the infrastructural facilities at children's homes is a must if the child inmates are to live under better conditions. Thus, attention will be paid to infrastructural facilities in children's homes as an area of prime importance.

Another area that has received the attention of the Department is the prevention of child exploitation, abuse and harassment. Programmes will be planned to raise awareness on these issues.

Under the NPA's focus on child reunification, steps will be taken to reunite children currently living in various orphanages with their parents, families or relations.

This measure will provide such children a chance to start a normal life with their families while also reducing the congestion (over-crowding) in such institutions. The rehabilitation of young offenders is another part of the programme.

Helping the elderly

There are many homeless and destitute elders in our country, as all of you probably know. You would also have heard of HelpAge Sri Lanka, which conducts many programmes towards the benefit of such people.

The organisation has now started many new programmes to train volunteers to handle programmes of caring for the elderly.

These trainees were selected from areas affected by the tsunami and after completing their training, they will look after the destitute elders in their areas. Over 480 volunteers are expected to be trained this year.

This is the ninth programme of this series. Six programmes have already been conducted in the South while three have been carried out in the East. HelpAge has trained 188 volunteers to provide home care service, out of which 119 are from the Southern Province and 69 from Batticaloa and Ampara.

The training programmes have been funded by HelpAge International-Sri Lanka Tsunami Operations.

Minimising the threat of landslides

We are all too familiar with the death and destruction caused by landslides in different parts of the country over the last few months. The National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) has now started a project to identify areas prone to landslides in Walapane and Hanguranketha.

Accordingly, Rambuke, Mahawewa, Pussalapitiya, Ritiyala, Narampathana, Okandhagala, Katayapathana, Elamulla and Thiruwanaella in Walapane and Hanguranketha have been identified as areas facing a high risk for landslides.

Data will be collected over a period from over 50 locations in these two areas, and according to these data, those locations will be categorised as high, moderate and low vulnerable landslide areas.

Most of the places identified in the survey had received severe damages in the recent landslides. The investigation expects to recognise more areas vulnerable for these disasters.

After the investigation, the NBRO together with the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) will educate residents of these areas. Ten districts have been identified as landslide-prone areas. Evaluations needed to finalise these reports are now being carried out.

The recent landslides destroyed 158 houses while 950 houses were partially damaged. The Government will assist the rebuilding of these houses while alternative dwellings will be provided to the victims.

The project would also assess other possibly threatened areas. Awareness programmes including preventive and precautionary methods would be implemented with the assistance of the DMC through divisional secretariats.

Aid for temples and children

A programme has been organised by the Public Trustee's Department to grant financial donations to 100 selected temples and scholarships to 1,000 eligible children.

Titled 'Siyak Vehera - Dahasak Mal' (Hundred temples and 1,000 children), the programme will see Rs 2.5 million being granted to 100 selected temples in the island, with each temple receiving Rs 25,000.

The properties owned by the late D.B. Jayatilaka have been used to provide these grants as a means of invoking merit on him. Grants will also be provided to several other religious institutions. There are over 500 temples expecting grants.

Under the same programme, 1000 scholarships will be provided to schoolchildren and undergraduates at a total cost of Rs 3.67 million. Each schoolchild will receive Rs 300 per month, while each undergraduate will receive Rs 500.

The students were selected after calling for applications through newspapers and also from details provided by District Secretaries. Priority has been given to children who have lost one or both parents, children of forces personnel who have sacrificed their lives for the country and children of unemployed parents.

Digital broadcasting and global warming

Digital broadcasting is increasing the threat of global warming by pumping massive amounts of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, official figures suggest. The millions of Britons who listen to the radio through their power-hungry digital televisions and computers together release an extra 190,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

According to the Stern review of the economics of climate change, that amount of carbon pollution will cause 8.5 million sterling pounds of damage to the planet.

Figures from the industry body Rajar show that 22 per cent of people in Britain now listen to the radio through their digital televisions at least once a week. About 12 per cent listen to stations through their computer.

Computers and TVs consume significantly more electricity than radios. Assuming a power rating of 200W for a TV and 250W for a computer, if one in five of the population listens to the radio via those devices for two hours a week, they will produce about 210,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

A 20W radio turned on for two hours a week by the same number of people would produce about 18,000 tonnes a year; digital and traditional radios use roughly the same amount of power.

Keith Marsh, of the Energy Savings Trust, said the new LCD and plasma-screen TVs were rated at up to 390W.

The extra emissions from digital listening account for almost a fifth of the estimated one million tonnes a year that could be saved by replacing every traditional light bulb in Britain with a low-energy version.

A government study estimates that the rise in gadget ownership and the switch from analogue to digital TV could boost the electricity usage of the consumer electronics sector by 60 per cent by 2010.

The Guardian

Water nominated for Oscar

Some of you may have watched the internationally acclaimed movie 'Water', which was filmed in Sri Lanka. The star of the movie was young Lankan girl, Sarala Kariyawasam.

Now this movie has received another international accolade. It is one of the five movies nominated in the Best Foreign Film category at the 79th Academy Awards. The prestigious awards ceremony will be held in Los Angeles, USA on February 25.

The film, directed by Deepa Mehta was line produced by Chandran Rutnam's company, Film Location Services (Pvt) Ltd. and was shot entirely in Sri Lanka.

National park in Polonnaruwa

The 17th national park of Sri Lanka was opened recently at Kavdulla in Polonnaruwa.

Over Rs. 60 million has been spent on the wildlife conservation project for this park while a special bird watching facility will also be made available for tourists.