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The Senehasa children’s centre provides treatment and therapy for those with special needs in the South
More than a day's love and care
By Vidushi Seneviratne
As Felix Adler asked, "What is more sacred than the life of a child"? Most parents would agree that nothing is and even more so, when their child is ‘special’…

H.A. Albert from Atahawula, Minuwandeniya, has to carry his nine-year-old son and travel in three buses to get to the Senehasa Children's Resource Centre. "We leave home around six in the morning, and I bring him once a week. When he came, he couldn't do anything on his own, but now we see a significant development in him," said this caring father.

With a considerable number of children being born with disabilities, Sri Lanka has an urgent need for centres that could provide such children with professional care. The Senehasa Children's Resource Centre in Kithulampitiya, Galle, which celebrated its first anniversary on August 1 is dedicated to this goal.

"In the beginning of 2003, we realised that there were lots of children coming to us from the Southern Province, especially Galle and Matara," says Ms. Theresa Sullivan, a member of the Voluntary Services Overseas (V.S.O), UK and a paediatric physiotherapist who had been attached to the Chitra Lane School for the Special Child, since 2003. She went on to explain that since these children had to travel extremely long distances in order to be assisted by the experts at the school, they were often too tired to go through the exercises and medical routines.

"With Navajeewana situated in Tangalle being the only centre for such children in the whole of the Southern Province, paediatric specialists at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital had to handle all such cases. On proposing that a centre for children with special needs should be opened in the South, we realised that the idea had already been considered by the specialists in the area," said Theresa, explaining how the Senehasa Children's Resource Centre came into being. Sandra Tessalar, also a V.S.O worker who is a trained learning disability nurse attached to the Ministry of Social Services (Southern Province), was another key figure in ensuring the smooth running of the Centre, handling most of the administrative work, in the initial stages.

Now registered under the Ministry of Social Services, the centre has a steering committee with Dr. Ms. Pushpa Punchihewa as President of the Senehasa Foundation and Shelton de Silva as Vice President. “ There are 285 children registered in our centre upto date," says Dr. Punchihewa , a paediatrician at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital.

"Any child with a special need, be it a physical impairment, speech, hearing impairment or any other intellectual impairment, is free to come in." Essentially a day-care centre, the Senehasa Children's Resource Centre accepts children from birth to 16 years. While some children are brought in after an initial assessment by Dr. Punchihewa or Dr. Disna Koddikarachchi, paediatrician of the General Hospital Mahamodara, who is the other consultant paediatrician for the centre, there are children who are registered on the initiative of their parents as well.

"The children are brought in on appointment basis five days a week and once a child is registered, he/she is given a particular programme depending on his or her needs," says Azra Welendawe, a trained special education coordinator. "While the physiotherapy and speech and language therapy is scheduled for Friday, psychiatric assistance is on Wednesday and the Child Stimulation Unit functions on four days of the week. Of course there are waiting lists for all of these categories now," she added.

Among the numerous services rendered by the Senehasa Children's Resource Centre, are the therapy sessions for Infant Stimulation, which is divided into the sensory and toddler group, consisting from birth to three years, and the (pre) pre school group. Azra, Dhammika Ariyananda and Sumana de Silva, all trained in special education, handle this category.

Speech Therapy is conducted by Chandrani Ekanayake and. Asoka de Silva, both attached to the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital. Sandya Wedage and Amitha Dharmawardhana, also attached to the Karapitiya Hospital, handle the physiotherapy category, and are assisted by Katherine Harrison, a V.S.O worker and paediatric physiotherapist working with the Navajeewana Centre, Tangalle. Anther Ickx, a V.S.O worker attached to the Ruhuna Medical Faculty, visits the centre every Saturday, and handles the psychiatric care.

Apart from these services, school going children are assisted in improving day to day skills through the Social Club conducted by Ms. K.K.A. Manel and Mallika Siriwardene, who are both trained in Special Education. For many parents, the Senehasa Children's Resource Centre has been a great boon. "My son has been coming here for the last one year and there is a visible improvement in him now. He couldn't walk or talk earlier, but now after the numerous exercises, he can paste pictures, play on his own and even looks at books," says G.V. Erandathie, of her 3 ½ year-old son S.K. Malshan.

Holding her grandson in her arms, Kamala Kodikara from Imaduwa explained that three-year-old Sachin Bandara had suffered a fit the day after his birth. "After being referred to the centre by Dr. Punchihewa, and following the prescribed exercises that develop the use of his spine, hands and legs, he can now turn on his own. We bring him once a month to the centre," she said.

The building conveniently situated close to the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, was in perfect condition, but was unused. Built by the Social Services Department with the aid of Shia Swedish Funding Organisation, it is specially designed for individuals with special needs.

With the initial funding for the centre coming from the committee members themselves, they were also given assistance by parents, donors and the Social Services Ministry but now need assistance from both the national and international community to continue their mission.

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