#39: Sri Lanka’s Care System: Progress, Gaps, And Hope - Nimali Kumari

Send us Fan MailWhat if turning 18 didn’t mean turning off support? We sit down with Nimmu, a powerhouse care leaver advocate from Sri Lanka, to map what’s changing, what still hurts, and how to build a system that puts children where they thrive—whether that’s family, kinship, adoption, or residential care. With warmth and precision, Nimmu explains Sri Lanka’s current landscape: most children live in Child Development Centres, foster care is in development, and adoption and kinship care remain key alternatives. She shares how things have improved—care plans, school access, and more respectful language—while spotlighting stubborn gaps like early exits at 15–16, patchy counselling, and the silent crisis of IDs and addresses that lock young adults out of services, votes, and formal work.We dig into the headline reform: government housing grants of two million rupees for eligible care leavers. It’s a game-changer for stability, but eligibility needs to be fair, and support can’t stop at a house key. Nimmu argues for true readiness: mental health care that starts years before transition, life skills from banking to bus travel, self-defence and safety for girls, and therapeutic caregiving that doesn’t require a therapist—just trained, consistent, loving adults. The most powerful lever, she says, is family strengthening. Divorce, poverty, and crisis push children into institutions; smart aid, mediation, and cash transfers can keep them home.Nimmu also reveals the engine behind lasting change: peer networks. Through Generation Never Give Up and Rise Together, care leavers connect to jobs, legal help, hostels, and uni pathways. Their next step is a transition home—safe, non-stigmatising housing where young people can work or study, contribute to bills, and stabilise before moving on. It’s practical, dignified, and scalable. Across borders, care leavers are organising, sharing policy wins, and proving that voice plus community equals momentum.If you care about child protection, aftercare, trauma-informed practice, and social policy that actually works, this conversation will recalibrate your sense of what’s possible. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review telling us: what’s the one change your community could make this year to improve leaving care?Nimali’s Bio: Affectionately known as Nimmu, Nimali is a care leaver from Sri Lanka who spent over a decade in institutional care. She holds a degree in Journalism, Advertising, and Mass Communication from NIILM University in India, along with additional qualifications in criminal investigation, psychology, and social sciences. Nimali has represented Sri Lanka as a speaker at numerous international conferences, including  those focused on child protection and women’s rights in Nepal (2017), and the BICON International Conference in India in 2018 and 2021, in Nepal in 2023, and Malaysia in 2025. Recently, Nimali spoke at the 35th FICE International Conference in Croatia (2024). In 2024, Nimali was honoured as a Young Change-Maker by the UN Ambassador and Neon Media. She is an active member of the Global Care Leavers Committee and member of the Care Leaders Council. She represented South Asian care leavers in the UN Resolution Focused Group (2019). Nimali recently launched her autobiography ‘The Caged Girl: A Journey To justice’’ &  ‘’Dumburu Pathok ‘’ in Sinhala.Disclaimer: Information reported by guests of this podcast is assumed to be accurate as stated. Podcast owner Colby Pearce is not responsible for any error of facts presented by podcast guests. In addition, unless otherwise specified, opinions expressed by guests of this podcast may not reflect those of the podcast owner, Colby Pearce. Support the show