Mother, child nutritional center opened in Pattalipuram

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 October 2005, 11:39 GMT]
The first Day Care Centre for Mother-Child built at a cost of about 1.5 million rupees was declared open Monday in Iththikulam- Pattalipuram in the Muttur east area in Trincomalee district. The Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) through its Trincomalee district secretariat has implemented this project with the funding of Tamil expatriates. The center provides nutritious food and health care for malnourished pregnant mothers and children, TRO officials said.

Under this project children of age one to five and malnourished pregnant mothers are given food and care in this centre from eight in the morning till five in the evening daily. They are provided with breakfast, lunch and meals packet for dinner when they leave daily. Parents can leave their toddlers in the centre when they go for work and take them in the evening home after work. Breast feeding babies are also allowed to stay with their mothers, TRO sources said.

Ms Kaaronja, LTTE Trincomalee district women political head hoisted the Thamileelam national flag and Mr. Puthiyavan, Trincomalee district head of the LTTE Political Secretariat unveiled the name board of the centre and Mr.Santhiralingam, Grama Sevaka Officer declared open the centre building by cutting the ribbon. Mr.V.Kalaivarnan, Project Officer of the TRO Trincomalee district secretariat presided.

Ms Kaaronja, Mr.Santhiralingam and several others spoke. Cultural events of children also took place. Pre-school teachers of the village were honored with gifts to mark the International Pre-School Teachers Day, sources said.

Two women caretakers with a watcher have been employed to look after children and mothers during daytime. A cook is employed to prepare meals. About one hundred children and pregnant mothers who needed nutritious food are now staying in the centre from the first day of opening.

Pattalipuram in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held area is one of the most remote and under-developed villages in district compared to government-controlled areas. Pattalipuram comprises a suburb Iththikulam. About three hundred families live in these areas. The literacy rate among villagers is very much low. Under age marriages are common.

Men, women and their children at the school going age work in fields as labourers getting paltry income. They struggle to make ends meet. Hence high rate of malnutrition prevails in Pattalipuram and areas in the vicinity, according to survey conducted by national and international non-governmental organizations.

TRO officials who spent three days in Pattalipuram in April last year visiting different households found that the housholds are so poor that they cooked their meals only in night and not providing breakfast and lunch to their children. The current project was initiated to remedy this situation, TRO sources said.