Mary Rani bought a land with her hard earned money working as a domestic servant in the Middle East. She also managed to lay the foundation to a little house she planned to build. But her life changed when her husband left her while she was still pregnant with her child.
She lived with her parents and her sister, who had a disability until the birth of her son. Her parents’ house did not have enough space and she felt she and her baby were a burden to her parents, who were already struggling so she decided to move to her little land determined to build a house someday.
“We lived under the neem tree at first,” she said pointing to the only big tree on her land.
“I cut sticks from the neem tree, got some coconut leaves, weaved them and made this shack that I now use as a kitchen,” she says, “This is where we used to sleep, but it was not safe because animals come in at night.”
“Then a neighbour offered us a space to sleep at night and we returned to stay under the tree during the day,” she adds, “The houses around gave me to eat.”
Mary Rani couldn’t find work with the newborn so she began to take him and go house to house begging for money.
“I collected enough to buy thatched leaves to build a small house that is just enough for the two of us. I used some of the thatched leaves from the shack too. Now the shack is more open and cooking there is difficult with the wind blowing the sand in, but at least we have a place of our own to sleep in,” Mary Rani says.
Her son is four now and is in preschool. She has still not found work that she can manage while attending to her little son, so on weekends she drops him at her parents’ and goes for begging.
“If I could build a little shop, then I could cook some snacks and sell,” she says.
We hope this house will bring her and her little son,
- Safety and protection from bad weather and human and animal threats.
- Improved and healthy living conditions.
- Improved human dignity and self-worth and
- Overall improvement of quality of life
Let's join hands to support vulnerable families to break the cycle of poverty and offer hope for a better tomorrow.
