your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
Chelvanayakam
Donor
“My husband suffers from a kidney disease, and he can’t do any work because he’s so sick.”
Vijayalaxmi lives in a village called Elankopuram in the North-East of Sri Lanka with her husband and their three children. They had to leave their home during the war a long time ago and lived in a camp for a few years.
They finally got back to their own land, but they still don’t have a real house of their own, so the family of five is living in a temporary hut for now. Vijayalaxmi has a daughter in Grade 11 and a son in Grade 9. It’s hard for them to get ahead in life because her husband has a very bad kidney illness. Since he is so sick, he can’t go out to work at all, so Vijayalaxmi has to do everything.
She goes out every day to find any daily wage labor jobs she can find. She uses that money to pay for her husband’s medicine and to keep her children in school. And she is working very hard to make sure they can finish their education.
It is a big struggle for her to earn enough for the medical bills, the school books, and have enough food for everyone. She works very hard, doing all the work alone to make sure her kids can keep learning and her husband can get his treatment.
Vijayalaxmi hopes that one day her children will finish school and find good jobs so that they can live a good life. She also plans to build a permanent house of their own so that they can live comfortably in the future.
Please note for many women sharing in written form is not easy. We sit with women to support them to share their story and added context so you can weave together what you have made possible.
I am Vijayalakshmi from Ilangapuram village. My family has five members. I live with my husband, one daughter, and two sons. My husband is suffering from heart disease, and my children are still going to school. Because of this, our life was very hard. We struggled with our daily food, the children’s education, and medical costs. Our money situation was very bad. We were very poor and I was trying so hard to earn enough from daily work to help us survive and move forward.
Then Palmera came to our village to support people, and they gave me support too. First, they gave us rice and food to meet our basic needs. Later, I joined Palmera’s village savings group and started saving my money there. Our group name is Roja.
(Palmera established the village bank in her village to develop financial literacy, a place to save and revolve their savings as loans to reduce their debt from predatory lenders. Through the village bank, women come together each week to talk, to share what is going on and support each other. This is the foundation for change because change happens in community and that is exactly what these structures support.)
We did not even have proper toilet facilities at home, but Palmera helped us with that too. Now we can manage our basic needs much better.
I have saved 55,000LKR (Approx $247 Aud) in my savings group. I took a loan of 30,000LKR (Approx $135 Aud) from the village savings group. Palmera supported me to buy a motor so that I could start fruit and vegetable cultivation as well.
(For food security, Palmera supports women to establish their own home garden, this is getting more challenging with wild monkeys, limited access to seeds and increasing pests with changing climate, because of all these challenges many do not engage in home gardens. Through your support we change that.)
I was also chosen by Palmera to be a peanut farmer, and I am now growing peanuts in my field.
(Palmera focuses on peanuts because it is a profitable sector that many in the region were not able to profitably engage in. What was needed was to address many last mile agricultural barriers including new practices, technologies, access to quality seeds and collective purchasing of inputs and selling; all activities that we are supporting Vijayalakshmi with.)
I used the loan money for goat farming and poultry farming. With the money I am making from all this, I can now take care of our daily needs and keep saving for our future. I am working very hard to lift my family up to have a better life.
(Palmera introduced goat rearing as an additional livelihood. It creates a sustainable source of income, bringing her hope and happiness.)
When my income was very low and we were struggling so much, this help changed everything for us. My family and I want to say a big thank you with joined hands to the family of Chelvanayakam Kumaranayakam who gave us this support. I pray to God that they and their family live a very long and blessed life.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Vijayalakshmi
Our work continues with Vijayalakshmi. She has begun the journey to stand on her own, but lasting change takes time. We will walk alongside her for one more year before letting go of her hand and it is this continued accompaniment that makes all the difference. And this is possible because of you. Thank you.
