Kulamathi’s family hasn’t had the chance to live in an actual house for over ten years.
Right now, they’re staying in a temporary shed. And it’s not even on their own land. They live on property owned by her husband’s sister. It’s not their space.
Her husband’s parents lost everything in the tsunami years ago. What land was left had to be shared out among the family. But there was nothing left for them.
This living situation was never meant to be a permanent one. But this is their life now.
And through the rain and the heat, they’ve been making it work because there’s no other option.
They have small children. When the hot season hits, the shelter gets too warm to stay inside. When it rains, it’s the same problem. But now because its wet and damp. It’s been 10 long years of this. And they still go on.
Her husband does daily wage labour, and what he brings home is what they buy food with. And they use it to cook and eat each day. That’s the whole picture. There is no money left for anything else.
Not because a house fixes everything, it doesn’t. But after ten years of living in borrowed space, having somewhere that is theirs would change everything about how this family starts each day. In a house that actually belongs to them.