your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
Druvinka
Donor
“My husband left my son and I without a second thought.”
Rangika is a single mother raising her son alone in the Colombo district. About 15 years ago, when her son was very small, her husband left them to live with another woman, without a second thought for how they would manage.
With no income of her own and no one else to turn to, Rangika began engaging in sex work to support herself and her son. She still lives with her parents in a house belonging to her brother, with no home of her own to offer her family.
Providing for her son and parents alone, with no support from her husband and nothing to fall back on, means that every day is a struggle to get by. But Rangika hold onto hope.
Despite everything, Rangika keeps working to raise her son and hold their household together, hoping for a way to build something steadier for all of them. That is her hope; a life of dignity and safety with enough to eat and live happily.
Please note for many women sharing in written form is not easy. We sit with women to support them to share their story and have added context so you can weave together what you have made possible.
Dear Druvinka,
I am Rangika. I am writing to you from the Colombo district of Sri Lanka.
I have a son. When my son was 08 years old, that is about 15 years ago, my husband left my son and I and started living with another woman. He left us without a second thought, without thinking for a second about our well being. Then, I was doing everything I could to bring up my son alone. I never imagined that we will suffer that way. It was during this time that I started engaging in sex work.
(At the time we met Rangika, her family was struggling with the deep poverty following her husband abandoning them. With yours and Palmera’s support, she found the strength to save her own money and start a business, helping her family recover and rebuild their lives.)
I knew how to sew clothes. At the time, I was living with my mother and father in a house that belonged to my brother. It was during this period that I was introduced to a village savings group that was set up in my area, by a Palmera official. She told me that they will help me put my sewing skills to use. She also connected me with the organization directly.
During that time, I frequently started getting sick. After many tests and medical check ups, we realized that I had breast cancer. They operated on me and I underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I lost all my hair at that time and I became bald. I looked so bad at that time I couldn’t even look at myself. I suffered mentally and physically.
The official from Palmera continued to check up on me during this time. She always connected me with the savings group. She encouraged me to not fall mentally but to start my own sewing business.
They offered me funds ot start this business. I bought a sewing machine from that money. My business grew day by day. I invested my time and effort in it. I did this happily. It gave me enough money to manage the household.
(Rangika previously was not engaged in earning a living income but today through continued mentorship and training she is able to engage economically and this has allowed her income to increase and to meet her basic needs.)
But it became difficult to continue my work in my brother’s house. He suggested that I finish the upstairs of the house and continue my work, but I didn’t have the resources to do that. But Palmera stepped into buid me a house.
Right now they are completing the upper story of my house. In a few days it will be done. Then I will have a home of my own. Then my parents, my son and I, we can all live in that house. I am waiting eagerly to see it happen.
(Building a new home was not something Rangika could have done when she first came to the programme. With Palmera’s further support, the income she had built, and the strength of her community around her, she was able to make it possible. This is what the programme is designed to create. Not dependency, but the conditions in which a family can take the next step for themselves.)
All this happened for me because I joined the savings group Palmera established in my village. And because of you. I want to thank you all for changing my life for the better. I pray that you will have the strength to change the lives of many other women who live in suffering the way I did.
And especially to you Druvinka, I give you all my thanks for contributing to this cause and for making all this possible.
Thank you.
Rangika
Our work continues with Rangika. She has begun the journey to stand on her own, but lasting change takes time. We will walk alongside her for one more year before letting go of her hand. It is this continued accompaniment that makes all the difference. And this is possible because of you. Thank you.
