your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“It’s a struggle, but we never let it stop the children’s education. We cut back wherever we could.”
Renuka lives in Anuradapura, the North Central region of Sri Lanka, with her husband and their three children – a 10-year-old daughter, a seven-year-old daughter, and a three-year-old son. Before she started her flower business, Renuka didn’t work outside the home, and the family got by on her husband’s income alone.
Her husband does farming and also travels to Colombo for machine and labour work when he can get it. That work isn’t steady, so the money coming in changes from week to week. Renuka started her flower business to bring in a second income, and now the two of them manage the household costs between them.
When money runs short, the family takes what they need from a local shop on credit and pays it back when they can. They’ve cut back on many things to keep the bigger costs covered. Tuition classes for the eldest daughter are one of those costs Renuka makes sure to keep up, no matter what else gets trimmed. She’s said that even in harder stretches, they didn’t let it touch the children’s education.
The eldest daughter wants to become a doctor, and Renuka and her husband are behind her in that. The two younger children are still small, but keeping all three in school and cared for is something the whole family works around.
The one thing they don’t yet have is a place of their own. Right now, building a house is the goal they’re saving toward together. Keeping the kids in school is still their main priority. That’s what they are working towards. Renuka wants to see her eldest reach her dream of becoming a doctor, and to have a home of their own to raise their family in.
