your family update

“There were days when we’ll be lying down in hunger, without food, and nobody was there to see if we were dead or alive”

Indumathi lives in Kadpanikulam with her two children. Her son is nineteen and her daughter is seventeen. Her husband left when her daughter was just a baby, so it has been just her taking care of everything. She managed to get some support from her parents when her husband left, and that helped her keep going.

She works whenever she can, doing daily wage jobs to buy food. Sometimes her son helps too. They have a few goats, but taking care of them often costs more than they earn. Most days they eat only once, and sometimes even that is hard.  There were times when she and her children had nothing to eat, and no one checked on them.

Even with all this, Indhumathi keeps her children in school. She used to work in weaving and in a garment factory, but she had to leave because it was too hard to work and take care of the children at the same time.

She makes sure her daughter goes to school and that her son can finish his AC mechanic course in Colombo. She helps him get training and interviews. She wants her children to get good jobs so they don’t have to struggle like she does.

For clothes and other small things, they have to save carefully. She only buys what is needed. Indhumathi works hard every day, raises her goats, sends the children to school, and makes sure they have something to eat, even when it is difficult. She wants her children to study, finish school, and find work so they can live a comfortable life.