Capital: Colombo
Area: 65.100 km²
Population: 20.1 million (July 2005)
Ethnic groups: Singhalese, Tamils and minorities of Moors, Burghers (descendents of Dutch and Portuguese colonists), Malayans and Vedda (indigenous population)
Official language(s): Singhalese (Sinhala)
Religion(s): Theravada Buddhism, Hindus, Christians and Muslims
Currency: 1 Sri Lankan rupee = 100 cents
SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country
In March 1980, Hermann Gmeiner's idea found its way to Sri Lanka via then SOS-Kinderdorf International representative Mr Helmut Kutin. Mr. Siddhartha Kaul was designated as the first Project Director for Sri Lanka. A government agreement was signed the same year and by November 1982, the first SOS children and their mothers were able to move into SOS Children's Village Piliyandala, near the capital, Colombo.
Because of the great need for adequate accommodation for orphaned and abandoned children on the one hand, and the lack of funds in the country itself on the other, a number of SOS Children's Villages and ancillary facilities were built. The SOS Kindergartens attached to the SOS Children's Villages are open to both children from the SOS Children's Villages and children from the neighbourhoods and are very much appreciated by the local population. In 1983, an agreement was signed with the education ministry to construct an SOS Hermann Gmeiner School near SOS Children's Village Piliyandala. Two years later this school was able to open its doors. So far it is the only SOS Hermann Gmeiner School in the country and gives children from the vicinity an excellent education.
To help the working mothers from the neighbourhood, SOS Social Centres were soon set up to provide day-care-facilities and medical treatment. The youths who have outgrown the SOS Children's Villages have been able to live in SOS Youth Facilities since 1991, where they learn to stand on their own to feet and are given help in finding jobs. The SOS Vocational Training Centre in Malpotha was built by SOS youths themselves in 1991. Here they receive all-round training in agriculture. In 1995 SOS Children's Villages of Sri Lanka spontaneously started an SOS Emergency Relief Programme, operating a refugee camp for six months in the north of the country. In 2003, SOS Children’s Villages started to operate Family Strengthening Programmes, which enable children who are at risk of losing the care of their family to grow within a caring family environment. To achieve this, SOS Children’s Villages works directly with families and communities to empower them to effectively protect and care for their children, in cooperation with local authorities and other service providers. In 2003 a permanent SOS Social Centre was established in Batticaloa, located in the troubled northeast of the country. After the Tsunami-disaster in December 2004 a comprehensive SOS Emergency Relief Programme was started in the east and southern coast of Sri Lanka, which reaching from immediate emergency relief measures to rebuilding homes.
Another Emergency Relief Programme has been started midyear 2009 in the North of Sri Lanka after the violent termination of the civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam. Within this programme SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka provided temporary accommodation, medical and psychological treatment for children and made all efforts to reunite them with their biological families. Since the beginning of 2011, the children who could not be reunited with their families have been accommodated in rented facilities in Jaffna, where they will be taken care of until the new SOS Children's Village there has been completed.
At present there are five SOS Children's Villages in Sri Lanka, five SOS Youth Facilities, eight SOS Kindergartens, one SOS Hermann Gmeiner School, four SOS Vocational Training Centres, eight SOS Social Centres, two SOS Medical Centres and one SOS Emergency Relief Programme.
Website of SOS Children's Villages Sri Lanka
(available in English)