Get the Keerthichandra twins home

As many of you may know, my sister, Lisa, and her family have been stranded in Sri Lanka for a number of years now whilst they navigate the complex immigration and nationality laws to enable them to return home to the UK with their gorgeous, adopted twin daughters. So far, despite Lisa being a UK National and her husband, Dash, being a dual UK/Sri Lanka National, their children have been denied any means of entering the UK and settling here.

Recent developments in Sri Lanka have meant that Dash has had to return to the UK to work and earn money to support his family and cover the ever-increasing legal fees in their battle to bring their children home. This meant leaving my sister alone in Sri Lanka, with her twin daughters and their two dogs, in the midst of the worst economic crisis to hit Sri Lanka.

As many of you would have seen on the news recently, people in Sri Lanka are suffering and my sister is among them. Her and her family are having to endure twice daily power cuts (day and night), they have no fuel to travel or get deliveries, they have no gas to cook with, food supplies are scarce and sometimes it takes days to find milk for the girls. Most recently when the girls were very ill (needing hospital treatment, but the hospitals were not admitting) they spent days sourcing medicines and nebuliser machines for the girls. Alongside this there are violent clashes with protesters almost daily, regular curfews imposed island wide, and the girls haven't been able to attend pre-school or classes in months.

On top of this is my sister has recently been diagnosed with a heart condition which requires further investigation in the UK. The condition is complicated by her Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a potentially life threatening genetic disorder which affects the body’s connective tissues, leaving Lisa with a litany of symptoms such as joint pain, fatigue, and digestive problems to name but a few. As such, her medical condition, along with the situation on the island, have left her family and friends in fear for her safety and the safety of her children, who she is now the sole carer of.

We are all perplexed that the legal adoption of their beautiful daughters in Sri Lanka could result in such a complicated case for them entering the UK and gaining British Nationality, especially as the girls’ overseas adoptions are now registered in the UK and the girls now have full British Adoption Birth Certificates and NHS numbers.

However, for various reasons, the girls’ ability to become British Citizens is at the discretion of the Home Office in this instance and this has meant my sister and her husband have had to seek a much stronger legal team than they had had up until now. They have already spent many thousands of pounds on legal fees and applications and they now face a final hurdle of spending a further £10k+ in legal fees to gain the girls’ citizenship and bring them home.

My sister, whilst stranded in Sri Lanka, is unable to earn an income as she has no right to work in Sri Lanka. Sole responsibility is on Dash, who is having to supporting his family from afar. They have been apart for more than 3 months now, and it could be another 6-12 months before they are able to reunite.

We know many of their beloved family and friends have been asking how they can help support my sister, the twins and Dash in their battle to return home. We have set up this gofundme on behalf of their family for anyone who is able to make a donation towards helping them raise the funds for this final, and most costly part, of their applications to get the girls to the UK to have 'Daddy bear hugs' once again.

We are hoping to raise £4,000 to help towards their immediate legal fees. As well as this gofundme site to make donations there will also be a number of events run by Dash, family members, and dear friends who are all supporting the family to get Lisa, Lavinia, Aria, Coco and Cutlet back to safety in the UK.

On behalf of the Keerthichandras we thank you for any donations, of whatever size, you are able to make in supporting efforts to get Lisa and her children home safely with the rest of their family.