Mrs Fernando has lived in this shack beside the railway line and brought up her children here. It was always much as you see it, but there was always a little money found for repairs. Not any more. Her husband died 9 months ago and the income he brought in came to an end.

Two grown up children live here now, with 3 young ones. The grown up children contribute what they can each week to keep some food on the table. One earns 58 pounds a month, the other works really hard as a tuk-tuk driver. Sometimes there is money, sometimes not. I have tried to help the family by buying the older son the tuk-tuk, so get some money so that they can live.

But the rains of last November and December brought things to a head. As you can see the place is low and the floodwater poured in at floor level. The rain also came in through the roof, and the health of everyone suffered. I helped raise cash to build a low wall and repair part of the house to keep most of the water out, but we did not have enough for the roof.

Here is Mrs Fernando with the two younger children. There is the shack and you can see the risks from the railway line.

There are other homes in the row, some nearly as bad. The land is owned by the railway and they could be thrown off at any time.

There is their home

This is the kitchen, complete with holes in the coconut roof.

This shows the new wall and side of the home.

Notice the clothes are hung up so that they stay dry. The youngest girl plays in a local band. Her uniform is hung up there. She looks splendid in her outfit.

The family are Christian and Mrs Fernando earns a little too, cleaning at the church.

It's difficult enough to feed her family, but house repairs are utterly beyond her.

So, what do we hope to do?

A couple of miles from their shack there is land for sale cheaply by Negombo standards. The minimum plot the government allows is 6 perches, about 150 sq meters. We could buy that for berween 3000 and 3500 pounds. Then a very small home can be built for about the same amount. With the help of an experienced builder the family can help to build the place themselves.