your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“All I want is to look after our grandson, pay off our debt and not burden my children.”
Jeyarani Amirtalingam lives in Vivananthapuram, in Sri Lanka’s East, with her husband and her grandson. Her four children are all married and living in their own homes, except this little one. Right now, Jeyarani and her husband are looking after him while he goes to school. He is living with them full time, and they are covering his needs alongside their own.
The family gets by on whatever work her husband can find. He does farm work and general day labour, but he only gets called two or three days a month, which brings in around 3,500 rupees a day.
The rest of the time, Jeyarani grows brinjal in a small garden at home to keep food on the table. They have taken a loan and are carrying that debt alongside the uneven income.
The person Jeyarani leaned on most was her brother. He is the one that raised her, and he died young after an accident. She still feels that loss. She says that if he had still been around, things would have been a little easier. Losing him meant losing that support and everything else got harder.
Keeping their grandchild fed and in school matters to her, and she is doing that on a very small and irregular income while still working down the debt they owe. Jeyarani also wants to clear the debt they have, and have a proper home, and reach a point where she is not adding to the load her children carry.
