Welcome to Methodist Church Sri Lanka. It began as a revival movement within the Church of England in the early 18th century. It constituted part of the greater 'Evangelical Revival'

 
 

Children are the most vulnerable group of persons in any society. Their vulnerability increases when the family become dysfunctional or is unexpectedly plunged into a crisis. Marital break-up, death of one or both parents, or loss of family income hit children the hardest. Domestic violence, alcoholic parents, malnutrition and neglect are other factors that aggravate the vulnerability of children. In addition to these unfortunate circumstances, a large number of children in Sri Lanka have also been the innocent victims of the ongoing ethnic conflict and the tsunami disaster.

The Methodist Church has been a pioneer in the field of education in Sri Lanka through her own system of schools and boys and girls homes. Over the years, most of the schools were taken over by the State but the number of children's homes and day care centres has grown. Today, the MCSL provides comprehensive child care services through a network of 15 children's homes and 12 day care centres throughout the country.


Presently, over 2000 deserving children are being cared for in the MCSL homes and day care centres. The MCSL children's homes and day care centres aim to enable the children to grow up to be useful citizens in a safe and caring environment. Facilities are also provided for them to realise their full potential. Children in MCSL homes continue their education in nearby State schools while the children in day care centres are initiated into the world of learning through a play and activity-based pre-school curriculum.

  
Many of these homes are also equipped with facilities for imparting vocational training. They enable the children to develop their innate skills and acquire competence in a trade so that as adults they can venture out with self-confidence and a sense of purpose. All the children in MCSL homes and day care centres are innocent, unfortunate victims of circumstances that are beyond their control, like the ethnic conflict and the tsunami. Please open your heart to them and help them to rebuild their shattered lives.

The Methodist Church also caters to Street Kids while providing recreation and empowerment activities. We encourage them to join the normal schools to continue with the normal education."

HOMES AND DAY CARE CENTRES

Financial stability

We are happy note the following homes and day care centres are totally
supported by funds raised by the circuits.

  • Boys Industrial Home - Wellawatta
  • Moratumulla Day Care centre
  • Nidahas Lanka Sama Sevaya. - Willorawatta
The Kaddaiveli Boys Home and Tangalle Boys Home will eventually become children centers, with a strong emphasize on community orianted Care for children.
Wardens/Home Mothers
Workshop for Wardens, House Mothers and Fathers and Guidelines and Code of Conduct to work among children to be held at Athurugiriya from 11th – 14th August 2010

Children who leave our homes
We now encourage the home to extend continued care for children who finish their OL/AL exams. We are now trying to arrange for vocational training etc.

Chldren Centers
During the year under review the children centre at Vaharai and Mahiladitive become operational. The Akkarapattu Childrens Centre is gradually improving. The Tangalle Children Centre to gaining momentum .

Child Policy Statement
The child Policy Statement was approved by the last Conference. Now we have appointed a group of eminent persons who could deal with any complaints of child abuse. All those who work with children in the Methodist Church will have to given a signed undertaking in relation to the policy statement. This includes all categories of church workers, Sunday school teachers, those working in Homes, Day care Centers, and Pre schools Children centers etc.

Future Directions
Most of our children related ministry has to be community oriented. We need to move away from institutional based care


 
for more details or inquiry children@methodistsrilanka.org

 

Report of the Children’s Desk

Methodist Homes for Children offers hope to children, youth and families through a nurturing, with Christian principles. Children in these Homes ranging from grade 3 to GCE A/L, who are orphaned, with single parent or families live below poverty line.  All children of school age receive a formal education. Another goal is to provide the children with vocational skills after the formal education.

In our report presented to the conference, we reported that the Methodist Church Sri Lanka runs 23 Homes and 09 Day Care Centres for boys and girls and most of our Homes and Day Care Centres were supported by the KNH. This year we report that we run 13 Homes and 08 Day Care Centres and it takes care of 920 children. Most of us are aware that the KNH policies of residential Homes have changed and they have decided to phase out all the Homes supported by them. Homes in Valachchenai, Chenkalady, Thirukkovil, Tangalle, Hatton and Koddaimunai were closed due to the withdrawal of KNH support. However, Koddaimunai managed to find funds to continue the Home by renting out a portion of the Home to a bank. A Korean Methodist Church came forward to support the GCE O/L and A/L children in the Hatton Home otherwise all these children would have been sent back to their homes without sitting for the public examination.

The Department of Social Responsibility and the subcommittee appointed to see to the Homes and Day Care Centres are of the view that the need to manage residential homes for the children is not yet over in Sri Lanka. A study conducted in Nilaveli showed that the school going girls sent to their homes have stopped schooling, married in young age and have children.

Our discussions with the KNH to extend the support given to the Homes did not provide any fruitful results. Therefore, some Homes run for the children in need were sadly closed down due to lack of funds. However, few Circuits took this challenge and found alternative funding resources. We are searching for donors before all the other KNH supported Homes closed down under the phasing out scheme during 2011 and 2012.

Homes and Day Care Centres continue to provide children a happy, friendly and a safe environment with love and understanding.

The Methodist Church on principle has accepted community based care for children. This will enable care being extended to all children in the villages and surroundings. As pilot projects we are exploring to establish few such centres in Vaharai, Tangalle , Akkaraipattu, and Mahiladithivu.

Nutritional Feeding Centers too are being run in some parts of the country to address the issues of malnutrition.

Summary of Activities in 2010-2011

  1. All the Homes registered with the relavant authorities.
  2. As we do not have the SLCCLA any longer, or the monitoring of all our Homes and Day Care Centers is now on the Children’s Desk. We have taken steps to manage the Children Desk as a special unit to monitor the work among the children.
  3. A sub Committee appointed for this purpose. The Committee decided to visit all the Homes and submit reports to evaluate and create a child friendly environment, ensure proper Administration and management Procedures.

Future Directions

  1. Explore donors to support the children in our Homes.
  2. Regular training programme to be conducted for Wardens of Homes & Day Care Centers along with exposure programmes.
 
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