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| Sunday, 1 January 2006 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Bringing back the rhythm of life "Too-winkle too-winkle little star How I wonder what you are ..."
"It is a joy to see Asha sing and play like this" said Mrs. Violet Hewage, her teacher. "She was caught in the tsunami and was paralysed from waist down. She could not walk and had to be taken to Colombo for treatment". But there is not a single sign of disability in her now. Bright eyed Asha seems to wear a smile on her face all the time. "She was given an injection and then she recovered gradually, especially after she started coming to the pre-school", the teacher explained. "Even at the hospital she had been asking for me". She added gleefully, showing how much the children are close to their teacher. Violet's pre-school where she has been working for the last 10 years was situated close to the sea, and the tsunami took it away completely leaving these children quite helpless. The makeshift pre-school in which these girls and boys now gather was built by their parents. Situated in the garden of one of the children's house, the pre-school is very basic with wooden planks for half walls and a roof over its head. It is a temporary building to ensure that children engage in their day-to-day activities. Activities The support given by Save the Children in Sri Lanka proved enormously helpful and timely. First, the pre-school received an activity pack which comprised balls, soft toys, skipping ropes, crayons, paper and other useful stationery. These items made Violet's life easier in continuing her activities with the children. Under SCiSL's Emergency education, its Matara office provided children's packs. All 17 children in the pre-school received this individual pack which contained a school bag, cap, water bottle, lunch box, handkerchiefs, pencil box, pencils and erasers, four sets of clothing and under garments, irrespective of the fact whether they were tsunami affected or not. "At Save the Children we cater to all children and we ensure that we do not leave any child feeling left out", said Thegla the officer involved in the Early Childhood Education Programme in Matara. A teacher's pack has also been designed and teachers received stationery, clothing and footwear to continue with their work. In addition, they were also given a pack containing nutritious food items to be given as a midmorning meal to the children. Save the Children has been engaged in training pre-school teachers in all affected areas on the psychosocial care of children affected by the disaster. Up-to-date over 400 teachers have been given the training. Further, Save the Children will continue training teachers on the teacher's resource guide titled "Play-but not Play". This resource guide was developed by Save the Children a few years ago and has been used to train pre-school teachers across the country in an attempt to make the curriculum in pre-schools cohesive. Recovery Opportunities to quickly resume their education have helped thousands of children get back to normalcy and assisted their recovery from the tsunami disaster. In the last 11 months, Save the Children in Sri Lanka has built 132 pre-schools across tsunami-affected areas and will be completing 28 by the end of the year, reaching a total of 5815 children in the 3-5 year age group. To help support pre-school education 16,000 pre-school kits have also been distributed up-to-date among children in Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres and welfare camps. Providing supplementary food where necessary is also part of the ECD program. On the request of the Ministry of Education, Save the Children is also rehabilitating 21 schools that were used as welfare camps, for the benefit of 15,000 children, and providing extra classes and equipment to more than 11,000 children to help them catch up with their studies. So far, 14,000 sets of secondary school notes were distributed to ordinary and advanced level students to enable them to take their examinations. Small projects are under way responding to displaced children's educational needs such as providing bicycles to enable them to get to school, setting up study centres and libraries to do their homework. This has enabled both teachers and children to focus on studies and have hope for the future. "One thing we have to commend is that the government had education right on top of their priority list. The Ministry was keen to reopen schools soon after the tsunami and this helped children to get back to normalcy", said Maleec Kalyaneratne, spokesperson for Save the Children. Responsibility The Education Programme of Save the Children has shown concern for accessibility to buildings for the disabled in the rebuilding and repair of pre-schools and schools for which it has assumed responsibility. Save the Children also encourages pre-schools to take in children who have disabilities. The various support received from Save the Children has given many teachers like Violet the strength to continue their services to the community. Violet's pre-school has helped to give the children a sense of normalcy to their disaster struck lives. The parents and the community must also feel that they have got the rhythm of normalcy back into their lives, as the seventeen young voices continue singing ..... "Up above the world so high Like a diamond in the sky" (RC) |
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| Produced by Lake House |
Seventeen sweet voices sang in a chorus as their teacher clapped with
them. Leading the team was Asha Nayanarangi, wearing a skirt and a T shirt
with a handkerchief pinned on it. She looks a typical pre-school kid by her
appearance. And she is. She sings, plays and draws pictures with her friends
at Singithi Pre-school in Kamburugamuwa in Southern Sri Lanka. 
