Legal
Many care leavers leave orphanages without birth certificates.
Legal
Law and Order
Although not the most obvious part of our work, in 2022 we have continued to provide significant legal support to care leavers. Many leave orphanages without birth certificates or other essential paperwork and court applications are required to produce ‘probable’ birth certificates. Others remain subject to court orders, often made without their knowledge, which have put them in the nominal care of siblings or other adults. These orders require a court hearing before they can be discharged.
Some care leavers find themselves caught up in historic criminal complaints arising out of their time in children’s homes. Too often they find themselves to be easy targets for law enforcement agencies and miscarriages of justice are common. Brighter Path provides legal support to young care leavers to ensure that they have access to proper legal advice during these investigations, something which is vitally important but rarely available through the state.
Further Reading

New Girls’ Transition Home
We were thrilled to open a new girls’ transition home in Colombo this week. Our first residents have already moved in and are settling into their new home. We know …

Moving House
In March we moved our main boys’ transition home to new premises in Colombo. The lease on our previous premises came to an end and this was the perfect opportunity …

Accessibility Works
Last month we completed some major adaptation works to the Brighter Path transition home in Colombo to make it suitable for wheelchair users. The most important part of our project was …


