your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
Kirsty Anantharajah
Donor
When we first met Santhakumar and her family, she greeted us with a warm smile that couldn’t hide the struggles behind her eyes. She spoke softly about her two children, both full of dreams and determination, walking to school each day with their books held close. Her husband works tirelessly as a daily wage earner, yet steady work is rare, and every rupee must stretch far.
Their home, a temporary shelter built in 2012, has weathered many storms—both the ones outside and the silent ones within. She shared how the walls do little to protect them from the rain or the fear of what tomorrow may bring. Yet, amid all this, Vinothini continues to pour her love into her family, cooking, cleaning, and ensuring her children never go to school hungry.
Her words carried a quiet strength, but also a longing—for stability, for safety, and for the peace of knowing her children will grow up in a home that will always be there. That day, we didn’t just meet Vinothini; we met a mother whose heart refuses to give up hope.
We’ve captured their voice so you can hear their story.
Vanakkam (Greetings). I am Shantharukumar Vinothini. I live in Manikapuram village. In our family, my husband, our two children, and I live together. My husband works as a wage earner, and we pay for the expenses of the children at home, as well as their education and food expenses. The fact is that we do not have a permanent home. We have been living in a temporary house for so long. Also, we faced a lot of difficulties during the rainy season without having a house.
(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).
Also, a village bank was operating near our village. The sisters there said that a group was going on, and they said, Come and see. They called us to join the village bank. We also went and joined. In fact, they told us to save money in that, just 50 LKR ($0.25 AUD), and how much we had, 50 LKR or 100 LKR ($0.50 AUD), according to the amount of money we had, and we saved that money and joined them. We made a small fruit and vegetable cultivation. We took small loans from our savings. We started making fruit and vegetable cultivation. Earlier, we planted 10 crops. Now we grow 15 or 20 and take it for our household needs and cooking; we get good vegetables that are free from chemicals. And we sell the extra vegetables to the shops and buy rice, flour, meat, etc. from it. Through that, we make our livelihood. It is a big help for us. It is a great joy for us that a group has come like this.
We also got groundnuts from the organization (Palmera). We grew groundnuts on a quarter acre of land and took the seeds and planted them the next season. We used to do the groundnuts cultivation twice a year. We got two or three times the amount of groundnuts from that and sold it and took care of the education expenses of our children. We also took care of the expenses of our two children. This was a big help to me. Also, when I asked to be selected as a beneficiary of the cattle from the organization (Palmera), they came to see the house and agreed to it and said that we should plant the grass and selected me. I have now set up a cow shed and planted grass. I am very happy that I was chosen.
What do you want to say to the family who helped you, Kirsty Anantharajah?
What I want to say is that we were very poor. No one else has helped us for a long time. We asked many people. No one helped us. We were in such a situation. But today, if they have helped us, I will be grateful to them for a long time. I also pray to God that these people, their families, and children, who have helped our family in this way, may live long and be very happy. We thank you for helping us and continuing to do so, brother.
