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| Sunday, 3 November 2002 |
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Call for more CEOs to join action group on children Sri Lanka has done extremely well in looking after the rights of children, but much more needs to be done to make the situation better as children are our future. UNICEF Country Representative for Sri Lanka and Maldives Ted Chaiban said Sri Lanka has some impressive results which prove that children's rights are being looked after. For example, infant and maternal mortality is low while the immunisation rate is 80 per cent. Ninety five per cent attend school while 98 per cent of this complete grade five. He was addressing the CEOs Breakfast Round Table for Children organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC). The meeting was attended by about 100 CEOs. On the other hand, he said, 50 per cent do not have numeracy skills. Around 200,000 adolescents are annually detected with sexually transmitted diseases. Among the other problems are tobacco, drug and alcohol abuse, suicide (Sri Lanka ranks third after Norway and Japan in suicides), sexual abuse, exploitation at work, corporal punishment, neglect and the war. The 20-year old war in the country has created a lot of problems for children. A total of 300,000 children are affected by the war while around 200 schools in the North and East do not function, he said. The drop-out rate in this area is 16 per cent compared to the national drop-out rate of four per cent. Nearly 50 per cent of children under five years suffer from respiratory diseases while malaria is another major threat. The challenges to overcome are malnutrition, quality of education, rise in child abuse and suicide. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to improve the quality of education, promote the concept of children as zones of peace and also promote education for conflict resolution. It is necessary to ensure that children can treat one another as children irrespective of cast or creed. This way we can ensure that there will never be a war again, said Chaiban. Vice Chairman Asia Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce and President Asia Injury Prevention Association Greig Craft, speaking of the Vietnam experience, said that around 15,000 children are killed while 30,000 suffer brain damage annually due to road accidents in Vietnam. "Therefore, we designed a light-weight helmet for children. A production plant was set up in Hanoi. The profit from sales is used in our projects," he said. "Care, education and making children aware of the dangers will help a country prosper as this will reduce expenditure such as cost of medicine on a long-term basis as one out of 12 deaths of children can be prevented," he added. "Children are our future. If we loose half of our children before they reach adulthood, we are loosing our future," said Mr Craft. Dawn Austin of Nisol Corrugated, speaking of the inconveniences faced by children in the North and East, asked whether we can afford to waste more time on petty things and ignore the burning issues faced by children. The CCC has formed an action group on children. Mr Craft will be the adviser to this group comprising Hemaka Amarasuriya, Dawn Austin, Ken Balendra, Shiromal Cooray, Raj De Silva, Shehara De Silva, Hussein Esufally, Chandra Jayaratne, Ranjith Page, Kavan Ratnayake, Dr Hans Wijayasuriya and D.A.S. Wijeratne. "We welcome more CEOs to join the group as we are planning to have several working groups," said Secretary General CCC Renton De Alwis. The organiser of the event and head of the Country Music Foundation, journalist Faizal Samath said the investment on a child today is for the future as he or she might become a president or prime Minister, a CEO, top manager or an employee as well as a consumer. |
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