your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
Shiamala Suntharalingam
Donor
When we met Luxmi, her eyes held both strength and quiet exhaustion — the kind that comes from years of carrying life’s burdens alone. In 2011, she and her family moved from India to Manikapuram, hoping for a new beginning. But even in this new place, challenges followed. With two young children in school, their needs keep growing, while their income remains uncertain.
Her husband suffers from a neurological illness that prevents him from working regularly. On his good days, he earns a small wage — just enough to buy food for the day. On other days, there is nothing. Luxmi works tirelessly, juggling household duties and small jobs whenever she can, trying to stretch every rupee to feed her family and keep her children in school. Each day is a struggle, but she refuses to give up. Her quiet determination and gratitude for every bit of support reveal a mother’s strength that endures, even in the hardest of times.
We’ve captured their voice so you can hear their story.
My name is Lakshmi Rajkumar. I live in Manikapuram village. We went to India as refugees in the 1990s and returned in 2016. My family consists of me, my husband, and two daughters. We came here amidst great hardship. We also have no relatives here.
(Palmera established a village bank in our community to develop financial literacy—a place where we could save and access loans to reduce our debt from predatory lenders).
Now I have joined a village savings group and have benefited a lot from that group. I am managing to keep my two daughters here with courage. My family has only one income, so being in this village savings group is a big help. I can go on and on about the great benefits of this group. However, I will only save my income in this village savings group every week. I have even saved 5 LKR (Approx $0.025 AUD), 10 LKR (Approx $0.051 AUD), and I will also save 100 LKR (Approx $0.51 AUD) if I get it.
Now, if we have an emergency, if I am not well, or if we face difficulties during the rainy season, I will immediately take an emergency loan from the savings group. Every year, I take a loan for paddy sowing and agriculture. When I wanted to raise chickens, I took a loan for that too. Similarly, I take many loans and repay them little by little. There is a plan like that — I can pay them all at once or in small amounts.
The Palmera team that runs this village group also comes and helps us every now and then. For example, they give us peanuts if there is a suitable situation for peanut cultivation. I received those peanut seeds and was selected as a peanut beneficiary. They provided the seeds and covered all the cultivation expenses. I cultivated once and got three harvests of peanuts. Then I kept them and cultivated again in the following years.
I also bought chickens on loan. There are now 10–12 chickens. I use the eggs for our own needs and sell the rest to buy school expenses, pens, and pencils for my children. Similarly, for fruit and vegetable cultivation, they have given us seeds, seedlings, and packets to keep the seedlings, along with training on how to maintain them. Through this, we can reduce the cost of vegetables — whether it is rain or sun, in the rainy or dry season — by keeping the packets to save water so that we can grow vegetables without pesticides.
Every day, we grow some kind of vegetable at home — not just vegetables, but also spinach and herbs needed for medicines. It is a big effort for us to grow these. Even though everyone is doing it, we did not know how to grow or maintain them properly before. This village group trained us in the correct methods, and Palmera visits our homes every week to monitor and explain what we don’t know. Everyone now has these methods in their homes. So now we do not buy vegetables. During the rainy season, we tend to add at least one spinach dish to our meals every day.
Similarly, cow beneficiaries have received cows in the village through Palmera. I am also part of the cow beneficiary program. I have built a cow shed as well.
Shiamala Suntharalingam has supported you. What would you like to say to her?
I didn’t know her before, but I will always be grateful to her for her help at this time. I will never forget this support. I don’t see it as help just for me and my family, but as help for the education of my two daughters. Just as that education will never be forgotten, I will never forget the help she gave me. My family will never forget it. Thank you very much. On behalf of myself and my family, I express my heartfelt gratitude.
Please note for many beneficiaries sharing in written form is not easy. We sit with these men and women to support them to share their story and have added context so you can weave together what you have made possible.
My name is Lakshmi Rajkumar. I live in Mullativu. I live with my two daughters and my husband. My daughters are studying for their G.C.E. Advanced Level public examination. I was going for daily wage labour to meet my family’s food needs and my children’s educational needs. Before Palmera came to our village, I was unable to provide nutritious food for my children. At times, I have cried.
(At the time we met Luxmi, her family was struggling with deep poverty. With yours and Palmera’s support, she found the strength to save her own money and build a livelihood, helping her family recover and rebuild their lives.)
A few years ago, the Palmera savings group came to our village. I didn’t think much of it. Then, a staff member came to my house and explained to me about the self-help group and the importance of saving. I said that I couldn’t save because my income was not enough to meet my family’s needs. When I said that, she said, “You can do it. You should come to the group meetings daily.”
After that, I also went for five or six meetings. Seeing our group’s other members saving, I also got the desire to save. Just like that, after my small expenses, I started to save the money I had left over, little by little. I started to save. Little by little, the habit of saving was formed. I, who thought I could never save, am saving today.
(Palmera established the village bank in her village to develop financial literacy, a place to save and revolve their savings as loans to reduce their debt from predatory lenders. Through the village bank, people come together each week to talk, to share what is going on and support each other. This is a foundation for change. Because change happens in community and that is exactly what these structures support.)
This is a big change that happened in me. Now, I am saving 300 rupees every week from the money left over from my income, which is a matter of happiness. The fact that I have now saved 44,000 (forty-four thousand) rupees is a surprising thing. At that time, I got a loan of 40,000 rupees from my village savings group to have well dug and built. This is a big change in my family, as we used to go to neighbours’ houses to get water for our use.
(When Luxmi first came to the programme, basic improvements to how her family lived were out of reach. Through the financial stability she has built, she has been able to invest in the conditions of daily life; safe shelter, clean water, sanitation. These are not things Palmera provided directly. They are what becomes possible when a family has stable income and the confidence to invest in their own future.)
Later, a staff member from the village savings group gave us training on home gardening and how to grow non-toxic vegetables. Based on that, I started a home garden at my house and fulfilled my food needs. Even now, I maintain it well, and after taking the vegetables for my household needs, I sell the rest to the nearby shops and buy other necessary items, fulfilling our needs.
It is a matter of happiness that my children and husband are now consuming nutritious food like vegetables, fish, and meat. In the times before this project, they consumed unhealthy food, which is a sad thing. Today, my family is living happily, which is noteworthy. I am confident that I can fulfil our food needs like this in my future. Now, I will travel forward without any worries about our future.
Next, as my livelihood, I was included in Palmera’s dairy cow project and was given a cow. I raised that cow in a special and healthy way, and now it has given birth to a calf. It is noteworthy that my children are drinking very nutritious milk daily. Along with that, I sell 5 litres (5L) of milk daily and am earning an income of 27,000 rupees per month, which is a matter of great happiness. From this money, I am covering my children’s educational expenses, which is noteworthy.
(Through the programme, Luxmi has been able to place her children’s education at the centre of her household planning. When a mother can pay school fees without crisis or borrowing, children stay in school. And with that, the path forward for the next generation begins to open.)
In addition, I received groundnuts from the organisation and cultivated 1/4 acre of groundnuts, earning 60,000 rupees every three months.
(Palmera focuses on peanuts because it is a profitable sector that many in the region were not able to profitably engage in. What was needed was to address many last mile agricultural barriers including new practices, technologies, access to quality seeds and collective purchasing of inputs and selling, all activities that we supported Luxmi with.)
With that, I have renovated my house. Now, I am living with great happiness, without any worries when I think about the future.
(The assets Luxmi has built through the programme -her animals, her cultivation, her skills- belong entirely to her. When Palmera’s support ends, these income sources do not disappear. What she has built continues. This is what sustainable economic independence looks like.)
My future goal is to increase my income by buying two more cows, and along with that, to send my two children to university and get them a permanent job.
A few years ago, talking with people in the community was a big task for me. Today, I can talk with people. This is my change. Now, I can confidently say that I can talk to the Grama Sevakar (Village Officer), the Economic Development Officer, and others about my government-related needs.
I would like to express my gratitude on behalf of my family to Shyamala and her family for providing us with this assistance. As far as I am concerned, I have no fear looking towards the future. The future looks bright to me.
It is a happy thing. The reason for this happiness is Shyamala and her family. We are overjoyed to express our many thanks to her and her family members. I pray to God that she and her family live a long life, free from illness and disease, with great happiness.
Thank you,
Luxmi
This is our final letter from Luxmi. The programme is complete. And what she has built will not end when our work does. She came to us with no savings, no reliable income, and no clear path forward. She leaves with all three. And with the skills, confidence, and community to keep building what she has started long after this programme ends. Thank you for making all this possible. We couldn’t have done it without your generosity
