Transforming the care of children in Sri Lanka

Dear friends and supporters,

I hope you and your families are keeping well and safe.

International Women's Day week is giving an opportunity to raise awareness about injustice and gender inequality globally. At TFT we are compelled to draw attention to the injustices of women and girl survivors of physical and sexual abuse in Sri Lanka, and we continue to shine a light and advocate for social and cultural change at the highest possible level.

The courageous stories we share here are heart-breaking and true and modified for palatable reading.

Victims as young as 10 years old, some with babies, are cast out by their families having suffered all kinds of abuse. They are forced to stand up for themselves in court and are then locked up in remand homes and institutions for their 'protection,' losing their right to a formal education while their perpetrators go free. This is the system.

Our Heartbeat Centre in Colombo is now providing an alternative solution to institutionalisation as part of our alternative family and foster care programme and is helping to build resilience in courageous and strong girls, some of who are care leavers, who want to create a safe reality for their own children, and enact their own visions of change.

Isuri's Story

Isuri's parents separated ten years ago and left her in a shop doorway. The owners picked her up and fed her only milk. Her mother claimed her back but ill-treated her. She ran away and drank poison. The doctors saw her fingers moving when she was in the mortuary. She recovered and was sent to prison. A police officer tried to use sexual violence and she bit his hand.

Isuri fought with everyone and tried to escape, and was recently brought to Heartbeat Centre. It has taken time for her to settle down, as she has never felt love or kindness before. She said she is now scared of a future away from the Heartbeat Centre and is determined to work hard towards becoming a policewoman.

Through theraputic exercises, education, and love, we are uplifting the girl's spirits and helping them to overcome their trauma to develop healthy and self-sufficient lives, and keeping them and their children out of harmful institutions.

Domestic violence and abuse cases have risen sharply during the pandemic and there is a growing demand for our services. Together we can give these young women and girls a future, please donate so we can continue our work.

Kind regards,

Joel

Dear friends and supporters,

I hope you and your families are keeping well. Your donations during these more than challenging times are more appreciated than ever.

Although our alternative family care training programmes have been temporarily paused because of the pandemic, we are now developing online training modules together with our global partners and with the appointment of our new TFT National Advocacy Manager for Alternative Family and Foster Care.

During the lockdown, we reached out further than we could have imagined and engaged with other interested organizations in Sri Lanka who we are looking forward to working with, and training in 2021.

TFT Heartbeat Centre has remained open and provides legal advice and pro-bono lawyering to women and girls suffering from sexual abuse and domestic violence. We are giving safe shelter to 6 abused teenage street girls, to keep them out of harmful orphanages, and providing them with education, meditation classes, and tutoring to build their confidence and help them gain the qualifications they need to change their lives. Amaya* here is determined to become a child rights lawyer, to prevent children like her from being sent to orphanages, and to remand homes with criminal offenders. They are victims and have suffered in ways too appalling to relate while their perpetrators go free, and they are so happy to feel safe together. 

Last month a girl called Shula arrived in the middle of the night by ambulance, she had been hospitalized after being abused by her mother’s boyfriend. Without the intervention of our lawyer, she would have been sent to a terrifying institution. Instead, she thought she had been sent to heaven. The girls pushed their beds together and gave her the comfort she desperately needed. Shula* has always lived in a mud hut, she wasn't used to anything but the soil on the floor, or a toilet or running water. She said she liked having electricity as she usually struggles to do her homework by moonlight and that she has never felt so happy.

Thank you to our fantastic supporters who have bought facemasks, recycled saree bags, and helped to buy seven looms to support vulnerable artisan mother entrepreneurs who were without income because of the pandemic. With a little online training, some beautiful table runners and placements have already been created for them to sell.

We are now looking for creative volunteers to help sell and market other products to support these vulnerable mothers which will enable them to feed and educate their children and prevent abandonment in orphanages through poverty. Please email me at joel@theirfuturetoday.com for more details of the volunteer role or products.

We are infinitely grateful to you.

Kind regards,

Joel