Story and pic by Haputale Buwaneka

A poor family struggling to make ends meet has been rendered homeless after a fire gutted their house, in a heart-rending incident at Maligatenna in Haputale last week.

“Everything went up in smoke, and we are left with only the clothes we were wearing”, wept Kapila Srikanth, the breadwinner of the family, who works as a laborer earning a daily wage.

“Even the school books of my two children are gone”, he said in anguish, as the blaze reduced to ashes everything the family owned.

He said that his wife had kept some gram on the fire and gone outside when the blaze erupted and engulfed the house. “My two children and I were not at home at the time and nothing could be saved as the fire spread rapidly”.

“Even our national identity cards went up in flames”, he said, and added “we will have to start life again from scratch”.

“We have been uprooted and thrown on to the streets”, the distraught father of two children cried. “With our house gone, we have nowhere to go”.

Srikanth appeals for financial assistance to rebuild his house so that the family can pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and continue the disrupted journey.

Those willing to contribute towards this worthy cause can credit their funds to Account No. 216200165655041, People’s Bank, Haputale branch, in favor of P. Kapila Srikanth. He can be contacted on 0784643511.