Diri Divi Prasadinee program three years on:
Safer environment for vulnerable children
by Ranil Wijayapala
In Sri Lanka, we often talk about children being abused and subjected
to violence in society due to various reasons and discuss those issues
in various platforms to find out as to why these children become
vulnerable to violence or abuse.

A student who performed well receives an award from Minister
Tissa Karaliyadda |
Though we discuss this serious issue time and again we see little
action being taken to prevent these situations resulting in the
continuity of such incidents as before.
There are many reasons for children to be subjected to violence or
abuse. Some of these issues can be easily addressed if society pays due
attention to the issues.
Sometimes children are subjected to violence if they are left out of
school education for the mere reason of their families not having enough
income to send them to schools.
Under such circumstances there is a likelihood of them drifting to
illegal ways of earning money for their daily needs. This is how some of
these children end up as child prostitutes, drug traffickers, domestic
servants and face violence and sexual abuse.
Economic reasons
As a country blessed with generous people, we can overcome this
situation easily if we assist those families and children with our
generosity enabling them to overcome these issues.
To address the issue of children vulnerable to abuse and violence,
the Probation and Child Care Services Department conducted a survey in
2011.
According to the Department of the Probation and Childcare Services
through the survey conducted islandwide, the Department has identified
around 40,000 students who were at risk of dropping out from school and
37,332 students face this risk due to economic reasons.
To assist these children, the Department provided uniforms, exercise
books and other equipment to continue their education while providing
scholarships for the students with the assistance from donors and
philanthropists.
The Ministry of Child Development and Women Affairs conducted this
program to assist such children and their families at district and
Divisional Secretariat level and strict follow up program will be
conducted to see the progress of these children.
The Probation and Child Care Services Department selected 500 such
children from the Kandy district and provided assistance for them and
their families to pursue their education and to improve their income
level.
Self-employment
As a part of this program the Probation and Childcare Services
Department provided scholarship worth Rs. 250 per month for the students
and Rs.10,000 for their families to start a self-employment projects to
improve their income level.

The students, their parents and guardians at the felicitation
ceremony |
After conducting this program for nearly three years since 2011 the
Probation and Childcare Services Department reviewed the progress of the
program and rewarded the students who had gained better results through
these programs.
Not only the students but also 57 parents and guardians who had shown
progress in their self-employment projects by investing the funds they
received from the Ministry properly for the progress of their children
and families.
According to Child Development and Women Affairs Ministry sources,
the Probation and Childcare Services Department monitored the
examination results of the students, their health situation, their
personality improvement, and leadership qualities and the progress of
the self employment projects of the parents and guardian of these
students when selecting 57 of them to be felicitated under Diri Divi
Prasadinee ceremony.
The ceremony was held in Kandy under the patronage of the Child
Development and Women Affairs Minister Tissa Karaliyadda and with the
participation of Central Province Governor Tikiri Kobbekaduwa, Chief
Minister Sarath Ekanayake and Health Minister Bandula Yalegama.
Minister Tissa Karaliyadda commended the officers for continuing the
program successfully after strictly following up the progress to
safeguard the children form their vulnerable situations and creating a
safer environment for them.
He said that programs of this nature would help further improve the
education of the children.
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