your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“Everything has fallen on me. Now we barely have enough to eat and manage day by day.”
Inthirani lives in Batticaloa, in the East of Sri Lanka, with her husband and three others in the household. Things have been hard since a storm hit and damaged their home. Things have gone from bad to worse now. And the family is really struggling.
Her husband has weakness in one arm and one leg, and he isn’t working at all right now. He stays home. That means Inthirani is the one keeping the family fed. She farms, runs an oil press, and takes on wage labour whenever someone calls her for work. The other people in the household also go for wage labour when work comes up, but it isn’t steady. There’s no guarantee of income from one week to the next.
When her husband was able, he planted crops and did what he could. Now that’s stopped. Inthirani keeps going. She moves between whatever work she can find, and the rest of the household does the same. It’s not regular, and it’s not enough to get ahead, but they keep at it.
When money runs short, there isn’t much to fall back on. The family describes it as hand to mouth. They eat when there’s work, and when there isn’t, they manage as best they can. There’s nothing saved and no way to take on a big repair like fixing the house.
What Inthirani wants is straightforward. She wants her family to live well. Not in luxury, but in safety. With enough food to eat. She knows it won’t be easy to build a home and says it herself, but that’s what she’s working toward.