your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“I’m paying for everything, taking loans, begging here and there, and still can’t meet all needs.”
Vijayasundari is 77 and lives in Mandavathari in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka with her daughter and husband. Her husband used to do daily wage work, but now he mostly stays home because of his age. So Vijayasundari takes care of the house and works on the land they have left. Even at her age, she grinds paddy, looks after the seeds, and manages what they can grow.
Her daughter is twenty-four and is studying to be a teacher. Vijayasundari tries to pay for her college, but it costs thirty to forty thousand rupees a month. Some months they barely have money for food, so she takes loans and borrows from others to make sure her daughter can keep studying.
They used to have cows, goats, lots of land, and machines, but over the years they lost most of it or had to sell it to pay off debts. She talks about nineteen years of hard work and struggle to keep the family going. Even with all of that, she keeps working, making sure her daughter can finish school.
She doesn’t expect anything for herself. Vijayasundari says, “I want us to stand on our own feet without any debts, without any worries, without having to beg.” She just wants her daughter to finish college and become a teacher. She doesn’t want her to live the same life she does.
Every day she keeps going, managing debts, working the land, and supporting her daughter’s education so that she can see her child live a comfortable life in the future.