MENCAFEP Sri Lanka celebrates silver serving the disabled

MENCAFEP Sri Lanka celebrated 25 years, of serving disabled children and young people on 25 January 2013, at their project Head Office in Nuwara Eliya.

The event was graced by the British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and Maldives John Rankin, the Mayor of Nuwara Eliya Mahinda Dodampe Gamage, teachers, students, staff members and the families of MENCAFEP.

MENCAFEP originated 25 years ago, when Chris and Ranji Stubbs were helping unemployed young women in Nuwara Eliya to find work. In a country torn apart by the ethnic conflict coupled with a depressed economy jobs were hard to come by.

During this time of research they found out that there were many disabled children who were being left out to die in isolation due to the inability and lack of expertise of their parents to care for them.

This triggered the inspiration behind a facility that would care for these deserving children and hence MENCAFEP was born. Ranji and Chris decided to start a day-care school and centre, where children would be looked after and the unemployed women in the area could work.

In 1988 they began with just six children and their families that grew into a number of 2,500 children and their families during its existence. It have also helped and assisted over 5,000 children and their families.

MENCAFEP also counters social stigma surrounding the birth of disabled children, such as the religious belief that disabilities are due to wrongdoings in babies’ or parents’ previous lives.

The organisation leaders concede that this deeply rooted belief is difficult to dispel, but point out that efforts to fight stigma have resulted in parents learning to properly care for their disabled children rather than abandoning them.

The training aspect of MENCAFEP’s work has developed over the years of its existence and was primarily set up to deal with its own staff training needs. The program and staff have developed, with word spreading of the unique work that was taking place.

It was decided to open up the project as a training resource for the people who are interested in working with disabled children in the way MENCAFEP has developed its systems.

Trainees have come from all over Sri Lanka, South Asia and Europe, from one weeks training to three months training. It is practical hands on a training course, with the trainee becoming part of the MENCAFEP family, the theoretical knowledge being imparted during the evenings.

The founder of the organisation Chris Stubbs, was born in the UK, and has a Masters Degree in social work and a doctorate in community based on rehabilitation.

In 2009 he was awarded an M.B.E. in the Queens’ birthday honours list for his work with children in Sri Lanka.

He has worked at-risk with children in the UK, before coming to Sri Lanka as a volunteer, where he founded MENCAFEP and set up a psychosocial program for 4,000 children and their families affected by armed conflict.

The co-founder of the organisation Ranji Stubbs was born in Sri Lanka. She has a degree in special education and previously helped and assisted tea estate workers for a local NGO.

To learn more about the work of MENCAFEP in the Central and Eastern provinces, log on to www.mencafep.com.