your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“Every time I earn something, the debts take it. There’s never enough left for us to live.”
Thangaluxmi lives in Batticaloa, in the East of Sri Lanka, with her husband and three children; two boys and a girl. Life has been hard for a long time, and right now the family is carrying a lot.
Her eldest son is in jail. That alone adds to the weight the family carries every day, because they still send him money when they can, even when there’s almost nothing to spare. The other children are younger. One is still studying. Her daughter helps keep the household going by pulling money from her own expenses or selling things when the family runs short. Without her, there’d be no food most days.
Thangaluxmi does seasonal work when it comes up, but the income isn’t steady. When she earns, the creditors take it. She says that whenever she makes an income from work, the debts are already waiting. There’s nothing left after that. Her husband is in the home, but he isn’t bringing in money, and she describes him drinking while she and her daughter work to keep things going.
There’s no toilet at the house. When she needs to go, she heads out to the tamarind trees or uses a neighbour’s place, especially when the children are around. Getting medicine when someone is sick isn’t something the family can count on either. There’s no money set aside for that.
She manages day to day by taking what work she can find and leaning on her daughter’s help. When both of those fall short, the family goes without. The debts don’t stop. The expenses don’t stop. And sending money to her son in jail means there’s even less to stretch across the rest of the household.
What Thangaluxmi wants is straightforward. She wants to clear the debts, give her children a proper education, and have three meals a day without owing anyone for them.