September 2 2009

Spirit of mutual support reigns in Sri Lanka

02/09/2009 - As work continues in the temporary care project that SOS Children's Villages has been running since 19 August, government authorities and NGOs have joined forces to help SOS Children's Villages provide the unaccompanied children with everything they need.

Nearly 300,000 people have been internally displaced as a result of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka that has now thankfully come to an end. Government-run relief villages work hard to provide them with basic necessities such as food, water and medical care. Within the relief camp at Chettikulum, SOS Children's Villages Sri Lanka has set up a temporary care project for children who are not accompanied by adults, either because they have been orphaned by the violent clashes or because they lost sight of their families in the chaos and confusion that ensued in the northern part of Sri Lanka.

Government authorities, NGOs and people in general have been impressed with what SOS Children's Villages is doing to help these children and have been very helpful in providing the organisation with all sorts of supplies and services. Thus, SOS Children's Villages owes it to this spirit of mutual support that the children in our care have access not only to vital necessities such as medical attention and medicine, water tanks, toilets, sanitary towels for the girls, milk powder and drinking water, but also books, biscuits and even the supplies that enabled our staff to organize an art competition among the children.

The main focus, however, remains the cooperation among authorities and NGOs to reunite the children with their families as soon as possible. Children whose families can not be located within a certain time frame could, with the government's consent, be taken in temporarily by the SOS Children's Village Nuwara Eliya.