10-16-2003, 11:52 AM
ஏன் இந்த இடைவெளி!
Sri Lanka still hungry for peace
Frances Harrison
BBC correspondent in northern Sri Lanka
It's assembly time at the Kiranchchi school and 200 children are praying to the Hindu goddess of wealth.
The irony doesn't strike them - so accustomed are they to poverty in these rebel held jungles of northern Sri Lanka.
Some children walk up to an hour to reach school without breakfast.
The stragglers keep coming in after the bell has rung - barefoot and wearing grubby uniforms.
New research has revealed alarming degrees of malnutrition among children like these affected by Sri Lanka's civil war.
A World Food Programme (WFP) survey just released found at least a quarter of children entering school in the north-east of the island suffered from acute malnutrition.
Although there has been nearly two years of fragile peace there is still severe food deprivation, especially in rebel Tamil Tiger controlled areas.
Parents' dilemma
The malnutrition is not immediately obvious until you ask the children's ages.
"If you compare these children with the children in other parts of Sri Lanka, they are much smaller," says WFP programme officer Hakan Tongal.
The 13-year-olds here... resemble eight or nine-year-olds in other parts of Sri Lanka."
WFP has started providing mid-morning meals to tens of thousands of children across the north-east in an attempt to fight the menace of malnutrition.
Parents cook a vast cauldron of rice and dal over a wood fire.
Thirteen-year-old Rajitha says: "If it doesn't rain then my father can't farm and we don't have food so we starve."
Vivekanth is one 12-year-olds who looks more like eight. His mother, Ratnapoopathy, at 45 already has grey hair and two grandchildren.
Someone has told her she should feed her five children eggs but patiently explains her dilemma - if she buys eggs, she can't buy rice.
"It's sad," she says, "that I am unable to do anything for my children."
According to WFP's research, a child in the conflict areas of the north-east is twice as likely to be malnourished as one in the south.
Sri Lanka may be a small island but even though the fighting has stopped the distances can still be measured by how much food is in children's stomachs.
Sri Lanka still hungry for peace
Frances Harrison
BBC correspondent in northern Sri Lanka
It's assembly time at the Kiranchchi school and 200 children are praying to the Hindu goddess of wealth.
The irony doesn't strike them - so accustomed are they to poverty in these rebel held jungles of northern Sri Lanka.
Some children walk up to an hour to reach school without breakfast.
The stragglers keep coming in after the bell has rung - barefoot and wearing grubby uniforms.
New research has revealed alarming degrees of malnutrition among children like these affected by Sri Lanka's civil war.
A World Food Programme (WFP) survey just released found at least a quarter of children entering school in the north-east of the island suffered from acute malnutrition.
Although there has been nearly two years of fragile peace there is still severe food deprivation, especially in rebel Tamil Tiger controlled areas.
Parents' dilemma
The malnutrition is not immediately obvious until you ask the children's ages.
"If you compare these children with the children in other parts of Sri Lanka, they are much smaller," says WFP programme officer Hakan Tongal.
The 13-year-olds here... resemble eight or nine-year-olds in other parts of Sri Lanka."
WFP has started providing mid-morning meals to tens of thousands of children across the north-east in an attempt to fight the menace of malnutrition.
Parents cook a vast cauldron of rice and dal over a wood fire.
Thirteen-year-old Rajitha says: "If it doesn't rain then my father can't farm and we don't have food so we starve."
Vivekanth is one 12-year-olds who looks more like eight. His mother, Ratnapoopathy, at 45 already has grey hair and two grandchildren.
Someone has told her she should feed her five children eggs but patiently explains her dilemma - if she buys eggs, she can't buy rice.
"It's sad," she says, "that I am unable to do anything for my children."
According to WFP's research, a child in the conflict areas of the north-east is twice as likely to be malnourished as one in the south.
Sri Lanka may be a small island but even though the fighting has stopped the distances can still be measured by how much food is in children's stomachs.
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