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| Sunday, 24 July 2005 |
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Features |  |
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Training Centre and Home For Destitute Since 1968, The Ceylon Association for Mentally Retarded (CAMR), an association incorporated by an Act of Parliament, has been totally dedicated to helping the intellectually Disabled in Sri Lanka by bringing together institutions, parents and other persons concerned, with the object of fostering and promoting, medical, vocational, spiritual and other services for both children and adults. CAMR is an approved charity that is registered with the Department of Social Services. Despite the activities of the Association, and its affiliates over the past three decades, there is a backlog of children/adults needing residential care and training. It is estimated that in Sri Lanka there are nearly 400,000 intellectually disabled persons(2.5% of Sri Lanka's population) of varied categories of retardation, 60% of whom are trainable to live a near-normal life. A more rapid expansion of the facilities available for this purpose has been limited by the inadequate resources provided both by the state and the community. CAMR has been approached by the parents/guardians of intellectually disabled persons to set up a Training Centre/Residential Home for such persons,who after the demise of the parents/guardians would otherwise be left destitute and be victims of unscrupulous friends and relatives who would rather exploit their wards and even ill-treat them. Many parents/guardians feel that their wards need constant caring, love and attention throughout their lives. As the wards grow up and mature in age, the strength of the parents/guardians weakens, and also due to social problems that crop up within families, the provision of protection, love and care becomes a matter of grave concern. Our Association has, in response to this appeal decided to set up a training Centre and a residential home whereby the anxieties of the parents will be relieved. The home will be a pilot project' that would serve as a model for the future development of the concept. CAMR cannot at present cater to the large number of persons who are in need of this service. Completion of the proposed "Home" and Training Centre" can trigger a chain reaction for setting up more residential homes, for those needing reassurance that their wards will not be uncared for, or exploited and abused after they are no more. We are also taking up this issue with the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure that the Government Policy must also be geared towards this end. The CAMR needs a land that already has a suitable building, or about one acre of land within 20 miles from Colombo city to construct a building for the pilot project. |
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