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The main project

The main project has been drawn up after the successful implementation of the six month pilot project and an in-depth study on child abuse and problems affecting the three communities. The main project will continue to work with the same communities who were involved in the six-month project.

The main objectives of the project are:

Capacity building

Children’s welfare

Access to education

Finance and employment

Health

Environment

Project implementation

The project is being implemented through various activities as follows.

Monthly group meetings

Monthly group meetings will take place to ensure that the women’s societies run smoothly and professionally. The aim is that within a year these organisations will be able to operate with little or no supervision. Once this point has been achieved, a loan system will be set up in each society. This will be done to increase sustainability of the project and empower communities and the women’s societies.

The monthly group meetings will help the communities to access resources, information and to organise a variety of training programmes and share information while enhancing their organisational and management skills. The existing three different groups will continue to meet and new groups will be set up. They will plan different activities and discuss problems pertaining to them and their communities.

Community mobilisation training

A lack of knowledge on rights as well as poor planning and management skills were identified in the six-month project. To improve the sustainability of the project, the communities will be trained to gain knowledge and skills. The aim is to develop the leadership skills and voluntary services of young adults in the project areas.

WDC will organise the training programmes and will use their own experienced staff for the majority of the programmes. External perople will be brought in when needed.

Cultural celebrations

During the six month project period WDC initiated community celebrations such as Independence Day Celebration in Pupuressa and New Year Celebration in Denmark village. This was the first time that community members had been able organise such programmes. During the main project, WDC will engage the community members to organise more activities, with WDC support, to enhance the overall development of the communities.

Children and women are the main focus of these activities. Children will take leadership roles in organising and implementing the programmes and other communities will contribute. In these programmes WDC will attempt to increase community participation and contributions towards community celebrations.

Workshop on creative writing/presentation

During the six-month project period WDC identified that presentation skills of the communities should be improved. There have been cases of right violations which have had a negative impact on all of the communities. However, the communities have not taken action on these issues because they are unaware of the strategies that can be used to address these issues.

This training program aims to improve the writing skills, (petition/letters), media reports (paper articles, report to electronic media) and communication skills. This will support and increase their lobbying and campaigning skills. Initially 30 community members will be selected from the target areas to participate in the programme.

Awareness programme on home management

During the project period WDC have identified that there are many domestic violence cases and family problems which have negative impact on children’s lives. Most of these cases link with some kind of misunderstanding, behavioural or communication gaps between husband and wife, parents and children or with other relatives. At the same time the project will promote group savings and micro credit schemes to improve family cooperation and income. This training programme will help to cover several aspects of the communities needs.

Pre-marriage counselling

The six month pilot project identified the prevalence of domestic abuse, alcohol addiction and a lack of understanding or knowledge of human or child rights. Furthermore, there is often a lack of, if any, division of labour at home. WDC therefore aims to provide pre-marital counselling for young couples to promote the concept of a ‘happy family’ emphasising their rights and responsibilities. This training will also aim to improve young parents understanding of children‟s rights and pre-natal care as many young parents in the target communities wed due to unplanned pregnancies.

Leadership skills training – children’s camp

During the six month period WDC conducted several leadership skills training of the target communities children and while children living in Ulapane have shown a remarkable performance in their activities (when compared with other two project areas) all children in the target communities need further training programmes. The proposed activities will give an opportunity to these children to share their experiences and different abilities and scale up their skills.

Children’s club members will be given the opportunity to demonstrate initiative to implement programme activities after taking part in the roles and responsibilities programme.

Awareness programme for school children

It has been identified that children have a negative attitude towards their education. Most of the school age children do some kind of work to generate an income. However, they do not receive any guidance from their parents or even from their school. The lack of facilities in the school and transport problems, have made this problem worse. It is essential that these children should understand the value of proper education to overcome issues related to poverty.

Educational trip

Children’s club members requested an educational trip as they are living in very remote area and hardly get the opportunity even to visit Kandy Town. This programme will be an opportunity for children to have fun and also exchange information and ideas with different children clubs.

The place and date will be decided by the children and WDC will facilitate and organise the trip.

Extra Tuition Classes

The need for extra classes was identified early on and reinforced by field visits by the Field Officers and Community Development Programme Coordinator. There are children who are slow learners and their parents can not provide extra education as a result of poverty and also transportation problems. This is particularly evident in the three communities.

WDC will contact the schools to select a suitable resource person who can conduct the programme in the project areas. WDC will also liaise with the locals to ensure suitable candidates are chosen.

Development of crèches

During the six-month project, WDC identified that the existing crèches in Pupuressa have a lack of adequate facilities. One centre has no roof which affects the children‟s security and the other two centres should be painted with other general maintenance tasks being undertaken. These centres will be provided with play items and other necessary teaching materials.

WDC will implement this activity with the participation and assistance from community members and estate management.

Preventive awareness on disability

Ulapane School runs a Disability Unit to cater towards children with disabilities in the community. Presently the centre provides services for ten children at the unit with more than 25 children in the field. However, it became clear during the six-month project that many parents and families did not identify disabilities that there children may be affected by. The majority of those families unable to identify and get treatment for their children are low income and have low levels of education. WDC has identified the need for preventive awareness to the community to increase understanding of issues connected to disability and identify, intervene and rehabilitate those families and individuals who are affected by disability.

The awareness programme will improve participant’s ability to identify disability or learning problems that may affect their children. The awareness programme will also highlight the causes of disability and basic means of prevention while also increasing awareness of procedures and referral system.

CBR renovation

The Special Education Unit at Ulapane School needs to be improved. Accessibility and facilities to physiotherapy are major areas of concern. Currently there is no access to disabled toilet facilities severely affecting the disabled children who currently use the centre. Renovation will provide increased opportunities for those with disabilities and emphasise the importance for equality of access for all to facilities. There are common facilities for disabled and other school children which the government provided but they will not provide facilities for Ulapane School due to low attendees of the Unit.

With the support and consultation from the special education resource person WDC will implement this programme. The Activity will also teach children how to use the new facility including health and sanitation training as well as training the children to understand correct daily practices.

CBR WDC staff member

There is currently no expertise in dealing and working with children with disabilities. WDC have seconded a staff member who is specifically trained in working with children with disabilities. SLCT will fund this staff member for the duration of the project while a suitable, sustainable replacement is found. This will ensure that the best possible care is provided for the communities children with disabilities while also providing education and information on the issue in the community.

The WDC full time staff member will be at the Special Education Unit and she will be responsible for running the centre activities and the rehabilitation activities in the field.

Pre-vocational training

Young children with disabilities and their parents will receive vocational training to improve their skills and encourage families dealing with issues related to disability to start self employment micro businesses with the assistance of the Social Service department. The six month project identified a lack of understanding of issues related to disability; therefore the vocational training will serve as a culmination of the projects activities and awareness programmes helping to reinforce disabled rights and roles in the community.

Partition of Classroom of the Kadugannawa Tamil School

The environment of the Kadugannawa School is not conducive to a good education as children of all age groups share the same room. Therefore, it is planned that the school be partitioned so that each year group has a defined, separate area. This activity will help to create a friendly and more education orientated atmosphere to pursue their studies.

Library facilities renovation

Library facilities of the Kadugannawa primary school and the Pupuressa school or community hall need to be improved. As many children in the area don‟t have any access to libraries and as a result the reading practices of these children is very poor. Access to information is essential for these children as they live in marginalised villages. The same problem prevails in the Denmark village but at the moment they don‟t have a suitable venue to establish a library. However, there is a possibility that this issue can be brought to the attention of the local government authorities.

Establishment of school counselling unit

WDC has had previous experiences in handling School Counselling Units and has had a lot of positive feedback from the teachers, students and parents after the completion of the six month project. As a result of these experiences WDC will introduce student friendly counselling services i three schools during the project period. The teachers who participated in the counselling skills development training during the six month project also highlighted the value of continuing the counselling service in the schools. Students who need psychological assistance in Kadugannawa primary school, Ulapane School and school at the Pupuressa estate will also benefit through this programme.

Teacher and student counselling

To ensure that the school counselling sessions are maintained at the high standard achieved during the six month pilot project WDC will implement additional Teacher and Student Counselling sessions during the two and a half year project. This programme will not only target teachers in the Ulapane, Kadugannawa and Pupuressa but also those teachers who teach at other schools in Naulla Village, Denmark Village and parts of Pupuressa. This will help spread word of the project, encourage other teachers to implement counselling programmes in their own schools and increase peer-to-peer learning.

Establishment of community monitoring committee

To improve the sustainability of the project a Community Monitoring Committee will be appointed to evaluate community grievances and to monitor issues raised by the community e.g. school drop outs. The Community Monitoring Committee will seek to access more support from government officers while increasing the awareness of community members to access the resources available to the. to address community issues there should b a strong relationship between community members and relevant officials. The aim of this activity is to strengthen the support services for the community.

Skills development training

WDC identified the economic problems of the project areas. As a result of this, six skill trainings were organised during the six month project and since then six women have started home based self-employment schemes. However, the target communities need more training on viable projects and marketing assistance, also there are unemployed women and youth who need financial support to get schemes started. This is especially the case in Pupuressa where those who do not have estate work are forced to go to other areas for mine work or overseas to work as domestic servants or farm labourers. This migration directly effects children as they are often left in unstable homes.

Establishing a micro-credit programme

WDC will endeavour to support the local community in skills training activities however, it is very difficult for the local community to have access to credit facilities from the formal banking system. This activity will address this issue and provide women and youth credit to start up self-employment schemes. WDC will also encourage communities to engage in credit saving schemes, and will introduce the informal savings systems among the group members.

Awareness of drugs and alcoholism

Drugs and alcoholism directly affect the lives of children and women in the target areas. The government rules and regulations on alcoholism will be a strategy to minimise the existing situations e.g. the patient should pay for all medicines (even in the government hospitals) if his/her cause of illness is alcohol. However, in another way this will be a hazard for the family members as they are low income families. There are reported cases in Pupuressa and Denmark village which have had a negative impact in the community. WDC aim to make the community aware about the negative results of alcoholism and to promote anti alcoholism among children and youth in the area.

Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme

The Principal of the Ulapane School pointed out the issues related to sexuality among teenagers in his school. The most important fact is that there is a lack of awareness on sex education in Sri Lanka as a result of cultural and other aspects. In this situation the young people get information from their friends or from an internet café. As a result of the current situation unexpected pregnancies among school going children has been gradually increasing and early marriages are also increasing.

HIV/AIDS and STD awareness

Preventive awareness on HIV/AIDS is needed to target communities at risk. During the six month project we did not find that this topic had a big demand from the community, but working with the target groups we understand that it is important to have such programmes as most of the young people are at risk according to their sexual health attitudes and behaviour. Some cases referred to the WDC counselling services reflect the need of the programme. The Field Officers findings also reflect the necessity of such actions.

Awareness programme on nutrition

Nutrition programmes are needed for the Pupuressa and Kadugannawa areas. During the six month project WDC found that there are nutrition problems prevailing in the plantation communities as well as rural communities. Food practices and cooking methods of these communities need to be improved.

Training on home gardening

Environmental issues have been gradually increasing in the target areas especially in Kadugannawa which is suffering from water, land, floods and sanitary problems. Also, in Denmark village water is an increasing problem. Furthermore, the long rainy season in Pupuressa is another form of obstacle which effects the communities in the area. During these times most people find difficulties in getting their food especially fresh vegetables. Recently the market price of vegetables has increased significantly because of environmental changes. In this situation those who have home gardens have benefited by growing their own food. WDC has promoted home gardening in rural and urban areas as a strategy to address several issues and with these experiences WDC are aiming to promote home gardening in this project as a tool of environment protection and poverty reduction.

Promote school environment programme

During the six month project period it became apparent that the attitude and understanding of children towards the protection of the environment and the use of public resources is poor. As such, the value of living in a peaceful environment and its positive effect on people‟s lives should be taught from school age. Therefore introducing and facilitating this activity into the three schools in the target area will aim to develop positive attitudes, friendliness and happiness of the children living in the target areas. Another expectation of the activities is to enhance and improve the relationship between teachers and students by engaging in such extra activities.

Staff

The programme will be implemented by 3 programme officers who will be coordinated by the Community Development Coordinator who will plan, monitor and guide all activities under the counsel of the WDC Director and Deputy Director.

Sustainability

Several strategies for sustainability are built into the project.

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