your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“A single hospital visit costs me what I earn in a month.”
Kalathevi lives in Palabcholai, in the North East of Sri Lanka, with her husband, one of her daughters, and grandchild. She has been the main earner in the household for as long as she can remember. Her husband does odd jobs when he is able to find them, but he only manages to go out for work once every 2 days, and even that is not regular.
Kalathevi makes and sells string hoppers. She has been doing this since the 1990s, back when very few others were doing it. During harvest season she would head to the paddy fields at six in the morning to serve breakfast to 15 to 20 field workers before wages were paid out by 10am.
That is how she kept the family going. Now the work is harder. More sellers and shops have come in, and business has dropped off. When she does sell, she brings in around 2,000 to 2,500 rupees per outing, but those outings are not regular.
Her two daughters are now around 40 and 46. But Kalathevi lost her son 10 years ago. He was unable to walk from childhood, and the family spent years trying every treatment they could find. He died at 25. She says the grief is still with her.
On top of that, she has a long-term illness she describes as a wind illness. She has been going to hospital for treatment for over 10 years. At one point doctors recommended an operation, but it was not approved. Now, a single hospital visit costs her roughly what she would earn in a month.
She is also repaying loans she took out to keep the string hopper business going. The debt sits alongside the medical costs, the irregular income, and keeping food in the house.
Day to day, Kalathevi manages carefully. She buys dry goods when she has money in hand and keeps around eight days of supply stored at a time. She does not buy food on credit. When there is nothing left, her daughters help where they can, but both of them have children of their own and their own financial pressures to handle.
Kalathevi is not focused on big plans. What she wants is simpler than that. She wants there to be food the next day.
When asked if that’s all she wants, she says, “I have no wishes at all. For us, the next day it’s just about having enough food, so we can eat.”
This is what she keeps working towards.
