Sri Lanka
Child Action Lanka works to assist and transform the lives of disadvantaged children and communities in Sri Lanka. Many of the children live and work on the streets as beggars. Hunger, neglect, exploitation and abuse are just a few of the many challenges faced by these children every day.
Our purpose is to enable disadvantaged children to realize the possibilities for themselves and change their own lives for the better. Our centres provide direct assistance to around 150 children in Kandy with 60 children provided with quality education at the centre and 20 toddlers provided with quality day care on a daily basis.
Our work is holistic – providing daily care but also vocational training to the older children and further educational opportunities. We train the mothers, most of whom beg on the streets, to learn new skills and therefore make sustainable incomes. Skills include card making, candle making, sewing, carpentry, computer training, English classes to name but a few. We also provide small loans to help families start small businesses such as fruit selling, making clothes, running a three-wheeler taxi. School-aged children are given extra tuition to support them to take their national exams and enhance their employment prospects. The children and families are also helped emotionally to help them maintain stability in their home and work life and ultimately to ensure that the next generation has a better chance of securing good education and good jobs and live fulfilled lives.
More recently we have opened centres for extremely underprivileged children in Kelaniya, near Colombo, and in the Hill Country town of Nuwera Eliya.
The Bethel Children’s Home was established to provide total care for children displaced and/or affected by the civil war and/or tsunami. Their aim is to provide a ‘home’ environment for needy children, including food, clothing, education and medical assistance. Currently they have one home for boys and one home for girls.
Despite Sri Lanka’s recent economic development, the increasing revenue is not used to relieve poverty. Unequal income distribution means that essential services such as road maintenance, reliable electricity, and educational facilities do not attract necessary funding from the federal government.
The aim of this project is to establish a training centre for agricultural development, English tuition and IT in the Sabaragamuwa Province. This project will provide a means of employment and training for the local community. This project is expected to operate profitably with the net gain being used to establish further poverty relieving projects for the region.
