Projects
Sri Lanka
CAI continues to work with Health Care Professionals to improve facilities for children and their mothers in Sri Lanka.
Through your generosity, immediately after the Tsunami, CAI was able to send drugs, supplies, and vital medical equipment to the North and East of Sri Lanka. This area, known as the Vanni, was already impoverished and disadvantaged by years of civil conflict but was then badly hit by the wave, making matters infinitely worse. CAI sent staff to the hard hit areas to allocate supplies and to up-date assessments of need that had been completed at the request of the UK Medical Institute of Tamil Doctors some 15 months prior to the Tsunami.
CAI has identified major needs for equipment and refurbishment of hospitals in Batticaloa, Killinochchi and Mullaitivu. But equipment alone is not the answer; there is a con-comitant need for training for Health Professionals.
The Sri Lanka College of Paediatrics is supporting CAI in a bid to offer a nationwide training program in the emergency treatment of life threatening illness in children and pregnant mothers. A similar CAI program is already running successfully in Pakistan with the support of the Pakistani Government and of the WHO. The program is specifically designed to make the country self sufficient for training, as with each course run new local trainers are identified who are then able to take over the future courses. On going support will be provided from the ALGS (Acute Life Support Group), which will ensure that the training given is of internationally acceptable standards. The ministry of Health of Sri Lanka have asked CAI to provide this training for them, but we cannot start to role out the program until we have secured funding.
CAI has also identified the urgent need for postgraduate Paediatric nurse training, in partnership with local medical and nursing staff. Dr S Ganesan an experienced Consultant Paediatrician who has chosen to work for some years in the difficult but very needy environment of Batticaloa General Hospital pleads “ “What we need is some training for nurses…” “I feel that improving the knowledge and skills of staff will help to improve the outcome”
CAI sent a nurse who works as a nurse teacher in the UK to Batticaloa for 2 months. She was able to assess the need and to identify postgraduate Paediatric nurse training as a priority. Since then she has written a nurse training program for Sri Lanka, taking into account local conditions and needs, which CAI is in the process of agreeing with Batticaloa Hospital Management. However this cannot happen until funding is identified.
Tsunami appeal donations
If you would like to donate by cash, credit card or cheque to Childhealth Advocacy Internationals’ Tsunami appeal please telephone +44 (0)115 950 6662 or write to Conway Chambers, 83 Derby Road, Nottingham, NG1 5BB or email at . Out of office hours please ring 07721 651037.
Further Information
+44 (0)115 950 6662
CAI
Conway Chambers
83 Derby Road
Nottingham
NG1 5BB
Help fundraise for our Sri Lanka projects
Past news from Sri Lanka
Read the latest Press Release about the Tsunami Appeal.
