Children's healthcare centre with UK donations

By Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

[email protected]

A new centre to provide health care and support services to less privileged children in Colombo will be built at Kirulapone this month with donations from people in Leeds and the Leeds City Council in the United Kingdom.

The Hope Children Centre built at a cost of several millions of rupees in a land allocated by the Colombo Municipal Council will include counselling facilities, child development programs and modern training methods aimed at developing skills of underprivileged children to become professional workers later in life.

Edwina Harrison said the purpose of setting up the centre was to provide training in the areas of child care and development for street children and to build a professional workforce.

Children from under served communities in Colombo and those from tsunami affected areas will be provided counselling programs and access to healthcare facilities. The Leeds City Council has donated 236,000 Sterling Pounds for this purpose.

She said the Colombo Municipal Council and the Leeds Council have identified a land at Kirulapone where the Hope Children Centre will be built.

They have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on management and the maintenance of the centre.

A delegation from the Leeds City Council is expected to visit Sri Lanka this month to launch a program to attract enthusiastic skilled individuals and draw stakeholders from the Government and the private sector.

Following the tsunami that devastated parts of Sri Lanka in December 2004, the Leeds City Council in the UK formed a partnership with the Colombo Municipal Council to build a children's resource centre at Kirulapone. The Leeds city Council in the UK signed an agreement with the Colombo Municipal Council in 2003 to develop projects in the field of trade, investment, education , culture and social development.

Businessman and media tycoon Clive Leach said that he came to in Sri Lanka almost 20 years ago and was involved in businesses during the past 12 years. Back in Leeds he saw the deadly tsunami unfolding on television and decided to help Sri Lanka through the Leeds City Council.

He said everybody has a role to play where the Hope Child Care Centre was concerned.

The public sector alone cannot handle such projects and the private sector should donate funds for construction of such projects. The Leeds, Colombo relationship should be strengthened further, he said. Leeds City Council Leader Richard Brett said, "The plans have been drawn up by architects from Colombo and we will ensure that we use local materials, contractors and workers at every stage so that this project benefits the whole island."

"We have been fortunate to have the support of the Colombo Municipal Council with advice from the voluntary sector. We thank them for helping us to make our ambition a reality," he said. The Head of International Relations of the Leeds City Council, Adrian Strain said the building work is due to start this month and the contract for the building will be awarded to the successful tenderer in the coming weeks.