your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“I want nothing for myself. I only want my children to be educated and not live like me.”
Vijeyakumary lives in Batticaloa, in, the East of Sri Lanka, with her husband, their three children, and her parents. That’s seven people in the house, and the household runs on whatever work comes in each day.
Her husband does daily wage labour, so there’s no fixed salary and no guaranteed income at the end of the month. Vijeyakumary takes on housework and domestic jobs to help cover what the family needs, especially the costs of keeping the children in school. Two of her children are still studying, and one has found work. Getting the two younger ones through their education is what she’s focused on right now.
Tuition fees are one of the harder things to manage. A kind teacher has agreed to offer her children tuition for a fraction of the cost so as to help them continue their education, which is the only reason she’s been able to keep that going. Without that, it wouldn’t be possible on what they earn. She also carries debt, and that sits over everything she does.
There’s something else that’s been worrying her. She had two gold chains at home, and they went missing. Her jewellery being stolen It’s something that she says affected her a lot. Because that is something they could have fallen back on.
When the money runs short, she keeps working. She picks up whatever domestic work she can find and puts what she earns toward the children. Her husband does the same with his daily work. They don’t have the kind of income that lets them plan far ahead, so they manage week to week and cover what they can.
What Vijeyakumary wants is to clear the debts they have so that everything she earns each month can go straight to her children, and she wants to see them study well and do something good with their lives. She wants to see them grow up and be debt free.