Program to find Sri Lankan parents launched

A program was launched to assist Sri Lankan children adopted by foreign parents to find their biological parents, a Health Ministry spokesman said.

According to the spokesman, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne provided information on the program during an interview with a television channel in the Netherlands recently.

Minister Senaratne had stated that there are around 4,000 Sri Lankan children seeking their biological, Sri Lankan parents. Minister Senaratne said a database of all 4,000 children would be set up and DNA tests would be conducted with the assistance of the Medical Faculty of the University of Colombo.

After the interview was telecast in the Netherlands, a database of Sri Lankan children living in Netherlands was set up and two of them had visited Sri Lanka recently. About 50 Sri Lankan mothers had responded to the newspaper advertisement published by them, he said.

He added that Dutch Ambassador Joanne Doornewaard extended her support towards the program when she met Minister Senaratne recently.