your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“After I got married, everything went to his drinking. That has been our life.”
Saritha lives in Ammankulam, Siviyanandapuram, the East of Sri Lanka, with her young son, who’s in 3rd grade. It’s just the two of them in the house now.
After she got married, her husband’s drinking took over. It’s been the hardest thing in her life. She doesn’t say much more about the past, but it’s clear that marriage didn’t give her the support she’d hoped for. She’s been managing on her own.
The household runs entirely on a social welfare allowance. There’s no other income coming in. No help from the government beyond that, nothing from the community, and nothing from any private source. Saritha covers everything from that one allowance, including her son’s tuition and all his school costs. She doesn’t have extra. She just makes it work.
Daily life has its real gaps too. There’s no toilet at home. Saritha and her son use the jungle. There’s no rainwater tank either. These aren’t small things, especially with a child in the house. Still, her son is in school and she’s keeping up with the costs. That’s not easy on a welfare allowance with no backup. She’s doing it anyway.
What Saritha wants is to find work. She’s not sure yet what kind, but she knows that without an income of her own, she and her son can’t get to where she wants them to be. She wants them to live well, in a way that people around them can see and respect.