Care Leavers

In October, Caroline and John de Bono hosted a birthday party for Brighter Path. This was our first celebration since the official launch in 2018 and long overdue. Past and present Brighter Path care leavers and all our staff were invited and enjoyed a fun evening together. There was music, drinks and food including a birthday cake. It was wonderful catching up with everyone and also celebrating all that we have achieved in these last 6 years. We have known some of these young people a long time and it is wonderful to see how far they have come since leaving their children’s home. Caroline made a short speech followed by two of our alumni who described how much their lives have changed from being part of the Brighter Path programme.

Tharindu was four when his mum left him at the orphanage. He remembers crying a lot. He was a very quiet and shy boy. He was 14 when a young man came to visit him at the orphanage. It was his brother, but he didn’t even know he had a brother. His brother explained that years ago their mum had left their father, an alcoholic who beat her. She wanted to make a fresh start with another man and couldn’t keep Tharindu, so she’d left him at the orphanage.

Tharindu is kind, hard-working and reliable; he did well enough in his O-Levels to be able to study A-Levels at a public school down the road. When he turned 18 and finished his A levels he asked the orphanage management if he could leave to study an IT course he had heard about. He also wanted to get a job, earn some money and live in the real world. The answer was ‘no you can’t leave, you are reliable so you can work here, you owe this to us, we’ve looked after you for years’. He kept asking but the answer was always ‘no’. Knowing that this wasn’t right Tharindu left in the middle of the night. He contacted a friend from his outside school and stayed with his friend’s family, sleeping on the floor. Feeling desperate and scared, he hid there for months too frightened to go outside, worrying that he had broken the law.

A few months later he was put in touch with Brighter Path Foundation. Tharindu moved into a transition home. Here he met other care leavers, including an old friend from his orphanage whom he had lost touch with. He started working with a mentor, got a mobile phone, new clothes and help to open a bank account. After a while he understood that he had done nothing wrong, he hadn’t broken the law and he had a right to choose how to lead his life.  He is now following his dream and studying web design. He has his own computer, receives a monthly living allowance and is learning to be independent.

Sanath’s parents both died when he was three years old. The head teacher of his village school took him to an orphanage in Colombo. Sanath stayed there for the next 15 years. He’s an easy going, sporty and sociable boy and made lots of friends. He struggled at school with reading, writing and maths and failed all his O-Levels. Sanath is creative though and he enjoyed painting and making beautiful kites. When he was older he also began to take great pride in regularly cutting all the boys’ hair at his orphanage.

The day Sanath turned 18 the head teacher from the village turned up at the orphanage offering for Sanath to come and live with her and her husband. She was now elderly and retired. She had made no contact at all in the last 15 years. Sanath had no other prospects and the orphanage management were keen for him to leave so even though he didn’t know this lady he left with her the next day. Two months later he ran away. He was being used as an unpaid servant, working in the house and field all day, every day. He slept on the kitchen floor.

He made his way back to Colombo on foot and slept rough for a week. He walked to the house of one of his former teachers and she called Brighter Path. He moved into the transition home, joined the Brighter Path programme and started to receive a monthly allowance. Initially Sanath was in shock and he wasn’t sure whom he could trust. He talked with his mentor about his dream of training to become a hairdresser. The following January he started a vocational training course in hairdressing funded in full by Brighter Path. Sanath still needs lots of practical and emotional support but the other care leavers and the Brighter Path team are there for him. He has made many friends in the transition home and also learnt to cook.  Sanath is now coming to the end of his course. A few months ago Brighter Path helped him secure a Saturday job in a salon and has been offered a full time job when he completes his course. 

Dinesh arrived at his orphanage when he was a very small baby and stayed there for over 20 years. He doesn’t know his birth name or his age or anything about his parents and doesn’t have anything other than a ‘probable birth certificate’. Dinesh remains deeply sad about not having a family. He often has difficulty controlling his emotions. He says he had to learn a lot about life on his own, often the hard way.

When Dinesh was 15 years old and studying for his O-Levels he swore at one of the orphanage staff. Overnight his life changed. As a punishment he was sent by the orphanage owners to live and work in a hardware shop they owned. He was forced to stay there in very basic conditions for the next five years. This was a very dark time for Dinesh. He was only allowed to come to the orphanage to attend school in the mornings then it was straight back to work.  He had to work in the shop every weekend too. Sometimes staff brought him food in the shop but often he went hungry.

Despite his terrible circumstances Dinesh studied for his O-Levels and then A-Levels. He was then thrown a lifeline. He was offered a job by someone outside the orphanage who recognised his tremendous energy and his strong leadership skills. Dinesh started working as a training consultant for a prestigious company that conducts leadership training programs for school children and university students.

A few years ago, with his employer’s blessing, Dinesh joined the Brighter Path Foundation team whilst also continuing to work as a training consultant. Dinesh started mentoring young care leavers and he extended to them the support and help which he had never received. He works tirelessly for the care leavers in his charge.  Brighter Path has provided Dinesh a with his own accommodation and then more recently supported him through a very difficult period of his own.

Dinesh is now in his late twenties and very thankful to all those who have helped him along the way. He wants to continue helping young care leavers in the future and others in need. One day he also wants to run his own business.