Flood Relief

“When the floods came, we didn’t know how we could restart our lives. Everything we owned got destroyed. We own a small provision shop which is attached to our house, both of which got damaged by the flood. I have a stunted right arm and my husband has a convulsion sickness which hinders us from working normal jobs. Our small grocery shop was our only source of income. It was already hard before and we did not know how we would cope after the floods”.

Shanthi did not have an easy childhood. When she was 13, she ran away from home after the death of her mother. She was taken in and brought up by nuns in the village of Velankanni. When she was of-age to marry, she was sent to Padappai where she met Balasubramani. They now have two kids who studied at The Ark Primary and Nursery School.

“We thought that we wouldn’t be able to rebuild our shop. My husband and I do not have much support here, and we do not go around asking for help. But then, somebody from Karunakarya came and checked on our situation. They offered to help us rebuild our shop. They understood our situation and we received even more than we needed. We never had a fridge before, but they helped us buy a second-hand freezer and we were able to expand our product range that way.”

“The things in our shop sell quickly now and we are again self-sustainable and are recovering fast. We do not take this for granted because it is very rare that we get help like this. We are very grateful to God for this.”