NCPA urges schools to set up CPCs

Ananda KANNANGARA

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) has called on schools to set up Child Protection Committees (CPCs) with the participation of parents, teachers and children.

The objective of setting up such committees in all 9,700 public schools is to create awareness of parents and teachers on the rights and responsibilities of students and also to protect children from unwanted elements.

NCPA, Chairperson, Anoma Dissanayake told the Junior Observer that these committees will help schoolchildren to refrain from various kinds of harassment.

The NCPA Chairperson said most children face domestic violence due to personal problems at home as this affects their educational activities. Elders should set examples to children by behaving in a proper manner and then they could take their children in the correct path," she said.

All children have the right to receive an education and it is the responsibility of everybody to inform the NCPA about non-school going children.Children cannot be employed as domestics.

This is a serious offence according to the law.

She focused special attention on child abuse incidents that are reported from all parts of the country and said that in 2010 over 500 such cases were reported and stern action was taken against openers.

Mrs. Dissanayake said Child Protection Committees will be an ideal platform for children to find solutions for their day to day problems.

A senior NCPA official said that the opening of the first child protection committee took place at Ananda Balika Vidyalaya, Kotte recently. Mrs. Dissanayaka also said such committees will be set up even in private schools, considering it as a national need.

Child Abuse complaints

The Children and Women's Bureau of the Sri Lanka Police plans to provide boxes to schools so that children can lodge complaints regarding child abuse, a source from Children and Women's Bureau of Sri Lanka said.

Children can insert information and complaints regarding child abuse in written form into these boxes installed in schools for the officials of the Bureau to collect.

The officials will regularly inspect the boxes and will maintain secrecy.

World Vision, an international non-government organisation will supply the boxes. The NGO has supplied equipment to 43 divisional offices of the Children and Women's Bureau.

Development of Dry Zone Botanical Gardens at Mirijjawila completed

A substantial proportion of development activities of the Dry Zone Botanical Gardens at Mirijjawila has been completed. This 300-acre botanical garden, which is the sixth botanical garden in Sri Lanka, is the largest Botanical Garden in the country. Land acquisition for this site was initiated in 2006 and planting commenced in 2008. Over 50 percent of the development activities are complete said Head of Department of National Botanical Gardens. Construction of internal roads, laying a 2-km-long pipe line from the nearby Beragama lake to the site, construction of a water tank and reclamation of three reservoirs (Kohombagas Wewa, Dematetta Wewa and Maliththangas wewa) for irrigation within the site have been completed. A visitor centre, ticket counter and souvenir shops, four summer houses with toilets, two officer's quarters, a field station, and an administrative office building are some structures nearing completion. About 40 percent of planting activities and construction of internal roads have also been completed.

The main purpose of the new garden is to conserve dry and arid zone plants of Sri Lanka .

The Garden will also provide opportunities for ecotourism and economic development in this area and model dry zone landscape improvement. Studies on lesser known and underutilised plants in the dry zone, herbal industry promotion, education and providing training on botany and floriculture to the students, researchers and public are some of the other objectives of the dry zone botanical garden.

[News in Brief]

by Rohana JAYALAL

Vision 2020

The Ministry of Health notes that over 160,000 children in the country are suffering from vision impairment. Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Health Dr. Palitha Mahipala said that the Ministry launched a programme titled 'Vision 2020' to help children and elders suffering from visual disabilities such as Glaucoma and Cataract.

The Additional Secretary said that under 'Vision 2020' programme, spectacles will be provided free of charge while individuals suffering from Cataract will be taken for surgery. Dr. Palitha Mahipala said that under this programme, measures will be taken to conduct nearly 12,000 Cataract operations.

He added that lenses that need to be used in these surgeries will be provided free of charge.

National Science Foundation

The US National Science Foundation has granted a five-year, $ 3.7 million grant through their Water Sustainability and Climate program to the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment (VIEE) for a unique interdisciplinary study of agricultural adaptation to water scarcity in Sri Lanka's Mahaweli River Watershed (MRW).

The VIEE study was developed in collaboration with colleagues from the National Building Research Organization and the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka.

The five-year project from 2012-2017 will continue from the ongoing work at the Vanderbilt University since 2010.The study seeks to understand the factors that facilitate or constrain adaptive responses among farmers within the Mahaweli River Watershed of Sri Lanka drawing upon the core disciplines of psychology, sociology, hydrology and engineering to investigate farmers' adaptive actions and how these decisions are affected by psychological, social, institutional, and environmental factors.

The team will simultaneously examine water availability and rice yields in light of farmer behaviour, changing rainfall and temperature patterns, land use changes, and water allocation decisions.

Prison Museum

The Ministry of Prison Reform and Rehabilitation will set up a Prison Museum soon, a ministry source said.

According to Minister Chandrasiri Gajadeera, preliminary studies were carried out and a list of the places and items of historical value that are found in the prisons of Sri Lanka are being compiled now.A manager of property and societies has been appointed in this regard, the Minister said. The Minister says that Sri Lanka Prisons which started in the colonial period have many historical records, documents, arts and crafts, equipment, machinery and places and highlighted the prison laundry that was opened in 1870 and still runs after a recent renovation by prisoners. The Minister plans to conserve and display the historical items to present and future generations.