Meth Mihira Special Needs Centre...

The centre offers educational, social and health care support to children and young adults with special needs living in the district of Moratuwa, south of the city of Colombo.

Dees Abled Children sponsor Meth Mihira providing ongoing financial support. We are responsible for the employment of teaching staff and teacher training. This includes the sponsorship of a local girl to train as a special needs teacher. In 2006 we introduced a school bus service and school uniforms.

This was followed by the HEALTHY BREAKFAST CLUB which was introduced in September 2007. This consists of a cooked mid morning meal and vitamin supplements. The service is needed even more so now considering the economic climate. This will be the only meal of the day for some of the children attending the centre. We have employed a student’s mother to prepare the meal. This helps her financially to care for her three children as the father fell to his death from a train in 2004.

Building work to the centre was completed in June 2009, this included an extension which has provided a much needed second classroom to accommodate the growing number of students. A kitchen has been installed, prior to this food had to be prepared in the neighbouring convent and carried across by staff.

There is now an area allocated for life skill lessons for the older students. It is the aim of the centre to encourage independence and self worth. Students are taught to care for their personal needs and to learn skills to enhance their lives. This enables a child to develop into a young adult feeling they have a role in their family and community.

A room with separate disability access has been installed to provide a multi sensory room. This is an exciting project for us which will provide therapy for the severely disabled children receiving support by the outreach programme. The sensory room is due for completion in August 2009.

Dee's Abled Children are committed to providing long term funding for the work of the Meth Mihira Special Needs Centre. As our projects grow and develop we need to generate as much interest in our work as possible. If you would like to support our work with the disadvantaged, disabled children in this impoverished area of Sri Lanka please visit our donation page or if you would like more information please email us.