German TV station assists tsunami-orphaned children

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 June 2005, 13:15 GMT]
Relief assistance project for children affected by tsunami disaster funded by Saarlaendischer Rundfunk (SR), a German Television and Radio Network in collaboration with German Technical Co-operation (GTZ) of the German Government is to be implemented in all villages affected in the NorthEast province, sources said.

NorthEast Provincial Department of Social Welfare wiil be the implementing agency.

The inaugural event of the project was held Tuesday in Navalady and Palamunai, badly affected villages in the Batticaloa district, sources said.

German SR Television-Radio Network has collected about two million Euros (250 million Sri Lankan rupees) from its subscribers in Germany for the implementation of the project, GTZ officials said.

Mr.V.Mahendrarajah, Planning Advisor of the GTZ's Performance Improvement Project (PIP) and Mr.P.Ravichchandran, Headquarters Probation and Child Care Officer of the Provincial Department of Social Welfare participated in the inaugural event. Ms Wagner and Ms Denzer represented German SR TV-Radio Network.

The beneficiaries under the project are 3839 tusnami affected children. 740 of these children are newly orphaned who lost both parents, 2179 children lost either father or mother and about 920 children are living in children's homes in the six districts in the NorthEast province, project officials said.

The project will deliver each child a selection of relief materials identified as basic necessities to normalise their lives, according to project officials.

These include bicycles, sandals, T-shirts, umbrellas, and towels among other things.

Under this project five hundred bicycles are to distribute after assessment on the basis of distance from school, age of the child and educational needs, GTZ sources said.

About seven thousand children are living in 158 children homes in the NorthEast and seventy thousand children are living with families headed by single person and below poverty line due to the two decades of war in the NorthEast, according to a previous study.

Tsunami has further affected the infrastructure and community livelihood and also has significantly increased the number of orphans, single parent families and widows in the NorthEast.