Three Sri Lankan Members of Parliament — Kandy MP M Velu Kumar, Jaffna MP S Shritharan and Vanni MP Charles Nirmalanathan — called upon the Tamil diaspora and the people of the State help the children of Eelam war widows to pursue higher education.

They made this plea attending a literary festival Sangam-4 in Madurai on Friday, the New Indian Express said.

Shritharan said, “The children of the women, who lost their husbands to war, have attained the age where they have to pursue higher education. There are nearly 90,000 registered widows, whose families are facing severe economic challenges.”

Calling for a joint collaboration to help the Sri Lankan youth pursue their dreams of higher education, the Lankan legislator wished if Tamils joined hands, it would go a long way in helping the youth.

Shedding light on the plight of the people, who scarificed their all during the war, Charles Nirmalanathan said, “Tamil families are not even able to fulfill their basic needs. While we are fighting for the freedom on the political stage, it is not possible to abandon those who sacrificed for the freedom of the Tamil people. I feel it is the duty of the Tamil people across the world to help develop entrepreneurship, education and livelihood of Sri Lankan Tamils.”

According to the Vanni MP, ‘Sangam 4’ provided the right stage to reach out to Tamils across the globe to put forth the education and livelihood issues of Sri Lankan Tamils. Founder of Sangam-4, M Jegath Kaspar said that the the 30 years of freedom struggle of the Sri Lankan Tamils ended in 2009, but left nearly 80,000 widowed, who were struggling to eke out a living.

(With inputs from The New Indian Express)