your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“My children watched other kids get earrings and ice cream. I had way to give them that.”
Vethanayaki and her husband Kannadasan live in Batticaloa, the East of Sri Lanka, with their three children; a 16-year-old boy, a 14-year-old boy, and a 13-year-old girl. The family of five has been through a lot, and they’ve kept moving forward with very little to lean on.
It wasn’t long ago that the family had no house at all. They lived under a tarpaulin, at a relative’s home, with the rain beating in when it came. They had no land of their own. Kannadasan borrowed 1 lakh 30,000 rupees from his mother and brothers-in-law to buy a plot where the family could put down roots. He says the plot is their only comfort now. Without it, they’d have nothing.
Kannadasan lost his hand in a machine accident. It happened around the time one of their children was being born. Losing his hand hit him hard, and he says there was a time he thought of dying. But he didn’t stop. He now works three jobs despite the permanent disability, herding goats, doing construction work across six buildings, and serving as a temple watchman. The family also gets a disability allowance of 10,000 rupees a month. Vethanayaki keeps the household running while Kannadasan takes on whatever work he can find.
When money runs short before the month ends, they buy rice on credit from a mill and get groceries on credit from a local shop. When the money comes in, they pay it back, then do the same again the following month. It’s a tight cycle, and there are times when there’s nothing to eat at all. The children have grown up watching other kids get small things; earrings, garlands, ice cream and going without. Vethanayaki carries that with him.
All three children are still in school. That’s something the family has held onto. Vethanayaki wants them to study hard, get government jobs, and have a steady income so they don’t have to do the same heavy work he does. She wants them to rise up and not have to struggle the way she has. More than anything, she says, she just wants the family to live happily.
