Message of H.E. the President of Sri Lanka on the World Children’s Day

Our children are the future of the nation. It is the responsibility of the entire society to create an environment for them to develop their skills while enriching them with knowledge. As much as we give importance to nurture children’s physical and mental health, we must also ensure they are brought up to be virtuous adults.

Even if a country achieves high ranking in many national and international development indices, I believe that a country cannot be rated as one with a righteous society unless it possesses rich fundamental qualities such as human virtues and compassion. To build that kind of a country we should equip our present and future generations with technical skills and language competencies while enhancing their moral values.

My sole purpose is to build a country where citizens conquer both the physical and mental poverty. It is guaranteed that in such a country children will live in peace, happiness and contentment. I believe that you will prudently steer the childhood of your offspring in order to create a generation that will experience the benefits of such a nation. Then only we can make the theme of this year’s World Children’s Day, ‘Let’s build our nation’ a reality.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa

September 28, 2020