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Saturday, March 15, 2025

Mom begs for a better life; can’t afford to send children to school

by

Radhica De Silva
308 days ago
20240511

 

As moth­ers across the coun­try bask in the glow of Moth­er’s Day, Afisha Bal is des­per­ate­ly plead­ing for help for her three young chil­dren.

All un­der the age of ten, the chil­dren have not been able to go to school as Bal strug­gles with the ag­o­nis­ing dilem­ma of putting food on the ta­ble or send­ing them to school.

While their friends go to school, Bal tries to teach her chil­dren at home, but the youngest two still can­not read.

With no free ear­ly child­hood cen­tres avail­able and preschool fees be­yond her reach, Bal said their dreams of hav­ing an ed­u­ca­tion seem to be a dis­tant dream.

Her two el­dest chil­dren are en­rolled at the Cal­i­for­nia Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School but Bal said be­cause she can­not af­ford trans­porta­tion, they have at­tend­ed school just sev­en times for the term.

The fam­i­ly’s one-room ply­wood house is nes­tled at the base of a steep hill, a stark re­minder of the up­hill bat­tle they face each day.

Break­ing down in tears, Bal re­vealed the depths of her de­spair say­ing she had reached her lim­it.

“I love my chil­dren but some­times I feel I could just pack up and take them to a home. I can’t feed my chil­dren. Some­times there is noth­ing to cook. If not for my age­ing fa­ther, my broth­er, or if not for my friend, we would have noth­ing,” she cried. 

She added: “It’s hard, I can’t take it, it dam­ag­ing me men­tal­ly. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, months now I’m feel­ing like this. Some­times I don’t eat. My daugh­ter says I have to be strong but I want some help.”

With no run­ning wa­ter or elec­tric­i­ty, the fam­i­ly us­es so­lar-pow­ered portable lights which they charge out­side. A neigh­bour gives them wa­ter but they have to fill it to cook and wash.

Bal us­es a basin to wash her dish­es and they have an out­door toi­let and bath­room.

“The chil­dren some­times have to go out­side to use the toi­let and when they get wet, they get sick. That’s why I leave a pot­ty in­side the house,” she ex­plained.

Bal said she went to the So­cial Wel­fare de­part­ment to ask for as­sis­tance but was told she need­ed proof of ad­dress. With no phone bill, light bill or in­ter­net bill, she could not pro­vide any doc­u­men­ta­tion. 

“I can­not get child sup­port ei­ther be­cause I have to know the ad­dress­es of their fa­ther but I don’t know where he is,” she added.

Bal said some may judge her by ask­ing why she had three chil­dren.

“It hap­pens. A man will treat you well in the ear­ly days. I learnt that now. I have been dam­aged and now I have de­cid­ed not to go down that road again. I will just live for my chil­dren,” she sobbed, wip­ing away tears.

 She said her home is al­so in­fest­ed with ants.

“Right now be­cause of the wa­ter that comes down the hill, the house sinks and is rest­ing on the dirt. The ants come all over the house. I have to use pitch oil (kerosene) and spray it all over to keep out the ants,” she added. 

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment Don­na Cox who said she im­me­di­ate­ly dis­patched a team to in­ves­ti­gate. Any­one want­i­ng to as­sist the fam­i­ly can call 284-0672.


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