Police instructs children in caring for elderly | Daily News

Police instructs children in caring for elderly

Kirulapana Police OIC Upul Samarasinghe addressing schoolchildren while HelpAge Executive Director Samantha Liyanawaduge looks on.
Kirulapana Police OIC Upul Samarasinghe addressing schoolchildren while HelpAge Executive Director Samantha Liyanawaduge looks on.

Kirulapana Police OIC Upul Samarasinghe said children have a responsibility to look after elders with love, protection and care.

He was speaking to schoolchildren at the Kirulapana Police Station, recently.

He said children, parents and grandparents lived together in the early days and it helped to build a rapport in the family.

“We believe that schoolchildren are the best community to pass the message of caring for elders as they too would become elders one day,” he said. Speaking on the occasion, HelpAge Executive Director Samantha Liyanawaduge said the motto of HelpAge is to bridge the inter-generational gap between the old and young generation.

“We do not promote building elders homes,” he said. Executive Director Liyanawaduge further said HelpAge has performed free cataract surgeries for senior citizens at the HelpAge Eye Hospital in Wellawatte to support low-income families.

He also said that HelpAge conducts mobile medical and eye camps countrywide in which they distribute spectacles free.

He requested people to contact HelpAge on 011 2803752/53/54 to help improve the living standards of needy elders.

“Elders can lodge a complaint at the National Secretariat for Elders if they are being isolated by their children which would help them to obtain compensation from children as per the Protection of Elders’ Rights Act No. 9 of 2000,” HelpAge Programme Manager Chaminda de Silva said.

“In addition, elders should be given easy access to any private or state institution and they should also be granted the authority to obtain loans from financial institutions to start self-employment projects,” she said. 


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