Plight of children stuck in Sri Lankan camps

I visited Vavuniya in early May, one of the towns in the north of Sri Lanka where lots of people uprooted by fighting between troops and rebels have arrived over the last few months.

Since my previous visit in March, the number of displaced had really grown.
In addition to the camps, transitional welfare villages have been set up to accommodate up to 800 families each. The villages are up to 100 acres - when you stand in one corner you can't see where it ends.

Although the welfare villages are spacious, some of the displacement camps set up in schools and colleges are very crowded and people are living in difficult conditions until they are moved into welfare villages. In particular I met lots of mothers who told me their children were missing. They held photos of their children and asked me: "Can you find them for us?" Read more ...

“Children’s welfare our only concern”

Among the civilians trapped in the North due to the present military conflict, the most affected and hurt are the children. Most of the children caught up in the war are psychologically or physically affected and Save the Children has expressed deep concern regarding their plight. The head of the Save the Children, UK, who also heads Save the Children globally Jasmine Whitbread was last week in Colombo to ascertain for herself the actual situation. In an exclusive interview with The Nation, she said that one of the top priorities of the organisation in a conflict and fragile country is to establish safe places that would enable the children to play and recover from the present trauma. “We use art and play therapy which gradually helps a child to forget his/her traumatic experiences and get back to a sense of normalcy. Looking forward, it is very important for us to support the reunification of children with their families and safe movement back to their villages and where they have come from,” she said. She further said that to further enhance early childhood development, Save the Children also plans to set up a trust fund with a collection of 1.4 million pounds, and hopefully equal amounts from other donors. The trust fund will help the Sri Lankan Government streamline pre- schools nationwide, she said. Read more ...

Caritas helps war victims in Sri Lanka

Caritas says that civilians are paying too high a cost for the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka and is calling for both sides to accept a ceasefire.

Hundreds of thousands of people in dire need are leaving rebel held territory in Vanni in the north of the country after months of intense combat between government forces and Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels and are now in government run camps.

Caritas is providing cooked meals to new arrivals, medical support, counselling for trauma, and will be working on providing schooling for children. Read more ...

Save the Children fears hundreds of children missing or separated from parents, following panicked escape from Sri Lanka 'No Fire' Zone

Save the Children fears hundreds of children are missing or separated from their parents, following the chaotic escape from the Sri Lanka 'no fire' zone this week. Even before the current influx into government camps in the north of the country, the children's charity estimated that a fifth of all children (423 out of 2036) in four camps where the organisation is working, were separated from their families.

Stein Lied, a Save the Children protection advisor in Northern Sri Lanka said, "The last influx was so large and so fast that we fear many hundreds of children have lost their parents along the way. The escape from the 'no fire' zone was so panicked that even a breastfeeding mother was separated from her newborn."

While the Sri Lankan government has taken measures to help reunify children with their parents, Save the Children is deeply concerned that with so many families uprooted numerous times, the situation is becoming dire. The charity estimates that 50,000 of those displaced are children. Read more ...