Walking through the stony path PDF Print E-mail
Pottuvil ADP
Thursday, 17 December 2009
© World Vision 2009
Ajithkumar (12) runs home after school, quickly changes his school uniform, cleans up and goes to his little sister. The 10-month old baby sister is thrilled to see him and jumps into his arms. Being the eldest in a family of five children Ajith has many responsibilities and this is his favourite.

“I love looking after my sister,” Ajith says, “I know how to stop her crying and I know how to put her to sleep."

Ajith comes from one of the poorest of the poor families in the Canadian sponsored Potthuvil ADP (East Sri Lanka). His parents used to break stones for a living, but an accident limited his father’s work forcing the mother to shoulder the work  alone to feed the mouths at home.

"Father goes to help mother and I go to help her too when ever I have free time and on holidays," says Ajith, "She takes my baby sister and my little brother with her always, so I go to look after them. Sometimes I break stones with her. I learnt it just by watching.”

“The stone hammer is heavy and my hand pains after sometime, but I still have not hammered my finger - not once," he says proudly.

In the war battered Potthuvil, poverty easily pulls children like Ajith out of school and into the labour force. Being a boy he is also vulnerable to many other evils that are associated with war.

“I myself have never been to school. We were too poor," his mother recalls, "I learnt to crush stones from my mother and I have been doing this since I was ten. But I’ll never want Ajith to follow this path. It’s a lot of suffering. I want all of my children to study.”

"I would never have been able to keep Ajith in school on my own," she says, "I barely manage to earn enough money to find their meals. But thanks to World Vision sponsorship, I don’t worry about his schooling anymore. He gets his books and all he needs to continue schooling.”

The days Ajith is at home, he happily attends to the house chores – cleaning the house, fetching water from the well for drinking and cooking.

“I like helping my mother because I know she goes through many hardships for us,” Ajith says.

The elder brother also takes time to help his younger siblings with their homework and studies and to play football with them and his best friend Raj.

Through the sponsorship programme, Ajith and his family also received assistance in building a safe home for themselves and a water sealed toilet. He also receives medical assistance when necessary and an yearly health checkup. His little brother will be enrolled in the World Vision preschool next year.


“World Vision has given us the children’s society too,” says Ajith, “Because of that I have so many friends.”

Although Ajith had come down twice in his grades, the little boy wants to be a doctor when he grows up.

“My favourite subjects are Tamil and Math, but I want to be a doctor when I grow up Ajith says, “I like to heal people. I am the one who puts medicine when my mother wounds or cuts her hand while breaking stones.”