THE UNICEF donated items worth over US$ 3.8 million worth items to the Women's Empowerment and Social Welfare Ministry for distribution among tsunami affected families and social welfare officers.
The items were handed over to Women's Empowerment and Social Welfare Minister Sumedha G. Jayasena yesterday at the Ministry by UNICEF Resident Representative in Sri Lanka Ted Chaiban.
Forty motorcycles worth over US$ 1 million and 100,000 kitchen utensil sets worth over US$ 2 million are among the donated items.
Twenty motorcycles will be distributed among the child rights promotion officers and probation officers in the North-East while the rest will be distributed among the officers in the South.
The bicycles to be distributed in the North-East were handed over to the Probation Commissioners at the same occasion by the minister.
The other items will be distributed among all tsunami affected families moving from welfare camps to temporary houses. More than 100,000 sets of kitchen utensils, beds and mattresses are among the donated items.
This is the second occasion that the UNICEF donated sets of kitchen utensils to tsunami victim families and those sets will be donated for the third time when the tsunami affected families move into permanent houses.
Earlier the sets were provided to them when they moved into welfare camps.
Women's Empowerment and Social Welfare Ministry Secretary A. N. R. Amaratunga, Ministry Additional Secretary Harsha Soyza and several other ministry officials and UNICEF officials were present.