your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“There are days when we miss two or even all three meals. But I never tell the children. I carry that alone.”
Sugandika lives Anuradhapura, in North Central Sri Lanka, with her husband and their three sons. The family of five share a small mud house, and making ends meet depends almost entirely on whatever daily labour work her husband can find.
Work doesn’t come every day. Some days he gets hired, some days he doesn’t. There’s no land to farm and no crops to fall back on. Everything the family eats has to be bought, so when work dries up, the gaps show up fast. There have been days where the parents missed two or three meals. And Sugandika carries that. She’s never told her boys.
When there isn’t enough money to buy food outright, she buys on credit from the local shop and pays it back once her husband is paid. That’s how the household keeps going. She stretches what comes in to cover food, day to day needs, and her youngest son’s school costs.
He’s in grade 7, and keeping him in school takes real effort. There are times when there’s no money for clothes or slippers, so one outfit gets washed and worn again and again. When she can’t afford proper notebooks, she splits one book down the middle so it covers two school subjects.
Her eldest son, who’s turning 25, was born with a disability in his left hand and the leg on that same side. He can’t do heavy work or anything that needs both hands. Sugandika has taken him to hospitals hoping something could be done, but his condition hasn’t changed. Her second son, turning 18, left school and still hasn’t found work. So the household income stays with her husband and his unsteady daily labour wages.
The worry that sits heaviest with Sugandika is her eldest son. She wants to see him reach a place where he can live without depending on anyone, especially on a day when she’s no longer here to look after him. She doesn’t talk about the shortages or the hard days out loud. That’s just how she holds it.
What she’s working toward is simple. She wants her youngest to get a good education and find his way to a solid future. She hopes the family can get proper shelter one day. And more than anything, she wants all three of her sons to reach a good place in life and be able to stand on their own.