by: Dilanthi Jayamanne

Children of the Eastern Province – many of them from internally displaced families - will receive psycho-social support under a proposal by the National Child Protection Authority. Chairman National Child Protection Authority Jagath Wellawatte told ‘The Island’ yesterday: "Children of the East have lived for over twenty to thirty years under an LTTE rule – in other words they have grown up with terrorism.

It is time to create a better environment for the future generation. They have hardly had the opportunity to live a normal life while none of the good opportunities afforded to the children of the South have been given to them," he said.

"We thought the best way to start a rehabilitation programme would be to work on the education of these children. They need a whole new syllabus for starters," the chairman said. He said the NCPA would have to work on the syllabuses for subjects like history and geography. The children have been given an impression that the Sri Lankan government has captured the land that was theirs and that the Sinhalese live in a separate country.

Wellawatte said the NCPA would work out a psycho-social program to bring them back into a society which was terror free.

(Courtesy : The Island )