Thanusa’s family doesn’t have a real home. They’re in a makeshift shelter with a tin roof.
And right now, in the Sri Lankan heat, staying inside during the day is almost impossible. But if the rains come, water gets in. And everything gets wet.
Either way, there’s no comfortable place for the children to just be.
When her husband leaves for work, Thanusa takes the children out of the house and looks for shady places nearby. Because sitting inside is much worse than sitting outside. That’s their life.
One of their two young children was born with a disability. He still lives with it. And they work hard to give him a normal life.
Her husband does whatever daily wage work he can find. Whatever he earns goes straight to the children’s needs and for food. There’s nothing left over. So there’s no way to save towards something permanent to live in.
Not because a house solves everything. It doesn’t. But it means that this family can finally have a place to rest and sleep in.
It means Thanusa won’t be spending her days trying to protect her children from their own home.