World Children’s Day - 1st October -2023

The theme for 2023 is, “Inclusion, for every child”. This clearly means that all children of this country and the world are entitled to equal rights. Sri Lanka is a signatory to the UN Child Rights Convention and the Persons with disabilities convention. Thus, we are committed to ensuring that these rights are fulfilled irrespective of their abilities by providing equal opportunity for healthcare, education, social welfare, love and protection. Every child is unique. Neurodiversity is a more recent conceptual framework that supports the uniqueness and equal rights with the argument that differences and disabilities are not necessarily pathological, but an intrinsic diversity of the human brain. This in turn supports moving away from an entirely medical model of understanding disability and its management toward a social framework, facilitating inclusion of all children in education and all other developments. Neurodiversity is considered especially relevant to autism spectrum disorder.     

SLACD takes this opportunity to notify of another milestone in their determination to offer the best possible care for children with special needs development.  An Early Intervention Centre for children with neurodevelopmental disorders will be opened in Karapitiya Teaching Hospital on the 25^th of October. The Centre is a generous gift to children of Sri Lanka by Citizen Development Business Finance PLC. This is the third such Centre they have gifted, the other two being at Anuradhapura and Ampara. SLACD offer their sincere acknowledgement and appreciation.   

Prof Hemamali Perera

President