Taking Care of 50 Vulnerable Sri Lankan Children

Local Compassion for Sunshine Kids

-          providing access to sight and hearing examinations

by Sharadha de Saram – Project Leader

In-spite of the recent flash floods and landslides caused by heavy rains which displaced around six-hundred thousand people from their homes and killed more than one hundred people with many more still missing, we were able to travel to the east coast of the island, where the Sunshine Day Care Centre is located. A few days of good weather encouraged us to make the visit to update ourselves on the situation and the needs of the children. We were also able to conduct the planned eye and hearing test for the children. Qualified Optometrists and Audiologists examined the eyes and hearing of the twenty-seven Sunshine Children, (fewer due to the flooding) who attended the camp. Accompanied by mothers and one father, the consultants looked for early signs of eye diseases and the sensitivity of the child’s hearing. The eye examination and hearing screening were arranged and conducted by Vision Care Optical Services, Trincomalee.

The Sunshine Charity’s mission is to take care of vulnerable children at the Sunshine Day Care Centre in the Trincomalee District, by providing one nutritious meal, creative opportunities, space to interact with other children, learning material and trained staff members who understand the needs of the children. In addition, workshops and camps like the eye and hearing camp conducted, the children are also provided with pharmaceutical drugs and worming treatment, shoes to prevent worming infection and uniforms.

Working with vulnerable children we often ask ‘what makes our children vulnerable’? We are made to understand that vulnerability is all about self-protection. What does this then mean to us, is what we ask next. Resource centres working on policies relating to vulnerable children, say that children particularly between the ages of one to six are considered always vulnerable. Making this age group the Sunshine Day Care Centre’s primary target group we are glad that over the last ten years, we have addressed areas such as physical and mental disability, the child’s emotional and behavioral problems particularly passive, shy and withdrawn, powerlessness including being unable to defend themselves, and acute illnesses, which the resource centres have identified as among the most vulnerable characteristics of children.

In their report, Vision Care Optical Services were happy to share the good news that none of the twenty-seven children they examined had any eye problems. In-fact, the children, they said had six-six vision which means none of them need any spectacles. There were two children however who needed follow-up on their hearing disability which will be done at the Vision Care services centre in Trincomalee town.