your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“I can’t give my children what they ask for. Even school books – we can’t buy them.”
Deepthi lives in Anuradhapura with her husband and their two sons, one who’s 14 and one who’s seven. The family doesn’t own land or a house, and everything they eat has to be bought from the shop.
Her husband does casual labour, but work only comes in two or three times a week. There’s no steady income and no farm to fall back on. When the wages aren’t there, the food isn’t either. The family eats rice once a day and fills the rest of their meals with roti and jackfruit. Deepthi manages the household, does all the cooking, and walks her younger son to school and back each day.
She thinks about food constantly. Because there is never enough of it. She goes to sleep at night already planning what she can put together in the morning. When money runs short, she works with whatever is available. Relatives on both sides want to help, but her parents, siblings, and in-laws all do casual labour too, so there’s only so much anyone can offer. Sometimes someone passes along a few books or pencils for the boys. The school supplies the children use each year mostly come from donations.
Her older son has an exam coming up next year and he’s struggling with English. Tuition for one subject costs 1,000 rupees, and Deepthi knows she can’t cover it right now. She hasn’t been able to enroll either boy in classes. It’s something she thinks about often, and it weighs on her. She wants to get him the help he needs before the exam, but the money just isn’t there yet.
What she wants most is a home of their own, two rooms would be enough, and for both her sons to study well and find good jobs. She looks forward to a time where they have enough to eat and she doesn’t have to worry about it every day.