your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“Somedays we eat only once.”
Yogamma lives in Batticoloa, in Sri Lanka’s East, with her husband and their twenty-four-year-old daughter. Their house is not finished, and they make do with what they have. Yogamma goes to work with her father doing wage work in the mornings and afternoons. Her husband does labor work too, but sometimes there is no work, and then they have very little to eat.
She buys rice and coconut most days and tries to make it last. Yogamma says there have been days when they only eat once. Her daughter still lives with them at home because they can’t afford to get her married. Where they live, without a proper house it is hard to find a groom.
A few months ago, she had to take a loan at very high interest because her husband didn’t get paid for four months. Now, the lenders call and harass her every day, and they are still paying it back while trying to feed the family and fix the house.
Yogamma grew up with hard times too. Her mother died when she was very young, and she stopped studying after fifth grade because there was no money for school. She worked as a child so that they had enough for food. She still works every day so that her family can eat.
She worries that her daughter had to stop going to school like she did. It weighs heavy on her mind.
But Yogamma keeps going, working hard and finding ways to get them food to eat. She hopes that one day they can finish the house and her daughter can get married. She looks forward to a day where they can finally pay off their debts.