Ruwan and his wife don’t have a proper home. They’re living under a tin roof in a temporary shelter, and when they need to use the toilet, they head to the jungle, just next to where they stay. That’s their everyday.
Ruwan is twenty-three. He and his wife got married a few years ago and have been trying to build something together since.
He fishes when the work is there. On other days he sells cardamom on buses to make up the difference. His wife does the same, selling cardamom and asking people for help on the harder days. Between the two of them, they cover what they need to get through the week.
That’s where everything goes. There’s nothing left over to build with.
All they want is a simple house. Somewhere that is their own.
Somewhere with walls that hold, a roof that keeps the heat out, and a door they can close at the end of the day.
They’ve said it themselves, “Just a home to live in happily”.
Not because a house will magically make them happy. It won’t.
But right now, it will be the one thing that changes how their every day starts, and give them hope.