Better future assured for youths coming out of childcare institutions

At an advocacy event Thursday morning, several government officials promised to change the way the state treats youths who age out of childcare institutions.Some reforms could be in place by as early as next month, one MP said.

Current law holds that all youth must leave government homes when they turn 18. At a press conference that often grew emotional, four young adults shared stories about the trials they faced upon leaving their residential homes.

Akash Moses, who now heads the Voice for the Voiceless Foundation, spent 18 years in a children’s home in Kandy. His parents abandoned him when he was two weeks old, he said. When he aged out of his home, he went to Colombo by himself. He was lucky, he said, and found a family who supported him. But his trials did not stop there – his birth certificate was incomplete, as it did not have his father’s name. That made it hard for him to fulfill basic needs, like opening a bank account.

“In society, it’s decided by this paper whether I’m going to sit in a higher position, or in garbage,” Akash Moses said.

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