September 2015
- Details
- Category: News
In all VACD activities, our guiding light is our Vision & Mission, which we share with you in order to refresh our own minds and remain focussed on the tasks and challenges ahead.
VACD was established to assist children with disabilities to overcome hardships associated with their physical and intellectual impairments and to eliminate social discrimination, community isolation and stigma and physical and sexual abuse. VACD also aims to alleviate poverty by providing financial assistance and vocational training to families where parents of these children are low paid, low skilled labourers or subsistence farmers. VACD also assists children and their parents achieve their individual and collective dreams and aspirations by providing medical help, special education including life skills training etc. for children and parents, conducting public awareness programs for the community and engaging with the local community, local businesses, government departments and ministries to improve their welfare, gain local community acceptance and promulgate the rights of children and parents.
- Chairman - S M D Milton Anthony Perera
- Deputy Chairman - K A Ratnayake
- Secretary - Col R M Kumarasinghe
- Treasurer – D M Sunethra Deepthi
- D M Ranathunga – Director
- W D Manel – Director
- Sarfun N Niyas – Director
STATISTICS OF DISABLED CHILDREN IN EACH DIVISIONAL SECRETARIAT IN THE UVA PROVINCE | |||||
Divisional Secretariat | Disabled Children as per Census 2014 | No. of VACD Registered Children | Male | Female | No. Of children requiring VACD services |
Badalkumbura | 12 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 9 |
Badulla | 51 | 26 | 16 | 10 | 25 |
Bandarawela | 52 | 73 | 42 | 31 | -21 |
Bibile | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
Buththala | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Ella | 48 | 20 | 11 | 9 | 28 |
Haldumulla | 23 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 4 |
Haliela | 69 | 21 | 16 | 5 | 48 |
Haputale | 19 | 40 | 22 | 18 | -21 |
Kandakatiya | 25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 |
Kataragama | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
Lunugala | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
Madagama | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
Madulla | 50 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
Mahiyangana | 70 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 70 |
Meegahakiwula | 22 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 21 |
Moneragala | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
Passara | 38 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 34 |
Rideemaliyadda | 52 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 52 |
Sewanagala | 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 |
Siyabalanduwa | 91 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 91 |
Soranathota | 21 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 19 |
Thanamalwila | 29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29 |
Uvaparanagama | 59 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 53 |
Welimada | 109 | 16 | 8 | 8 | 93 |
Wellawaya | 76 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 73 |
TOTAL | 1045 | 234 | 137 | 97 | 811 |
- Where there is most demand for a centre,
- Townships where there are very few /no children with disabilities registered with VACD are those that are quite a distance away from the Bandarawela centre.
- There are more children registered with VACD than found in the census in Bandarawela and Haputale because parents are reluctant to register their children as “disabled” due to community and social discrimination and stigma.
- We have been reliably informed that there are close to 2000 disabled children in the Uva province and it appears that quite a few have not been included or have decided not to be recorded in the census
- The VACD Centre in Bandarawela continues to provide Special education, music, dance and vocational training for children and income generating skills training for parents
- The micro financing program for parents keeps making slow but steady progress
- The Educational Assistance Program has made some progress in getting a few more sponsors under this program. However as the number of children who show academic promise and need financial support to reach a more secure future grows, and as some sponsors decide to drop out of the program, we find that we would have to seek more sponsors on an ongoing basis. Please recommend this program to your family, friends or colleagues who may be looking for a worthwhile cause to support.
Please explore our website for more information on VACD and to find out how you can support our children, in particular the educational Assistance Program, via direct credit or through the credit card payment system.