Recent statistics have shown an alarming increase in violence against children in Sri Lanka in the form of physical and mental torture, sexual assault and abuse. Children are also exposed to the use of illegal drugs and pornographic material which may lead to child prostitution and trafficking. This can be due to the unlimited broadcast of uncensored adult content in TV shows, popularity of mobile phones with internet facilities, increasing substance abuse, access to social media and the lack of sex education.

WERC commenced a project on awareness creation among school children among schools in 2015 and the project ended successfully. The success of this project led to WERC developing a second phase focused on the Western Province of Sri Lanka.

Accordingly, the project which is funded by the US Embassy, administered by Sarvodaya and approved by the Ministry of Education, targets 800 school children in the Western Province in the districts of Kalutara, Gampaha and Colombo.