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Summary: In Sri Lanka, many young children have no access to schooling, and their development is dangerously delayed. Because a child’s learning process must be promoted in the first years of life, Terre des hommes has now set up a project to build kindergartens and to train professionals to supervise them and give the children the education they have a right to.
Despite the civil war ending in 2009, its aftereffects are still very present. In the north, intersected by dozens of military check-points, can be found villages at the heart of which life is being picked up again. However, for all too many of the inhabitants, their return home after the conflict was marred by the difficulty of making a living, as all communal resources have been badly affected. In addition to the serious material consequences, others less visible are equally devastating. In Sri Lanka, many young children have no access to schooling, and their development is dangerously delayed. Because a child’s learning process must be promoted in the first years of life, Terre des hommes has now set up a project to build kindergartens and to train professionals to supervise them and give the children the education they have a right to. “Learning starts at birth. This implies that proper attention is paid to the care of young children and to their initial education, which can be done within a framework of arrangements where the families, communities or institutional structures are involved, as required.“ As Article 5 of the 1990 World Conference on Education for All explains, it is today universally recognized that the first years of a child’s life are decisive to its cognitive development. In order to respond to the urgent needs in Sri Lanka , Tdh is carrying out a project based in the district of Mullaitivu in the north, in the four villages of Puthukkudieruppu, Maritempattu, Manthai East and Thunukkai. The project, co-financed by Swiss Solidarity, commenced in February 2011 and is scheduled to close in October this year. In partnership with OfERR Ceylon and supported by the community and the authorities, Tdh is constructing and renovating 28 centres for child development and equipping them with the appropriate material. These centres, comparable to kindergartens, will let the children socialize and develop their abilities in establishments run by the community. To do this, work is being carried out to build and renovate the centres, including equipping them with school material and the necessary infrastructure for drinking water and hygiene. By October 2013, Tdh will have set up 10 new kindergartens and renovated 18 others in the Mullaitivu district. So as to complete the project, members of the community are being given training and support by social workers specializing in child protection, and committees for running the project have been established in the villages. Terre des hommes fights for the generations of children who may not be sacrificed in the name of a war they themselves did not even know about. This project will allow many families who have no access to private, expensive schools to offer their children an education at kindergartens that can guarantee a healthy and secure environment. Under supervision the little ones will learn to read and write, and be able to profit from the games and pedagogic activities to which every single child has the right.Each and every child has the right to education