Dealing with the cards you are dealt

Since Tuesday the concept of ‘luck’ has been playing on my mind. Particularly bad luck. And how some, through no fault of their own, have been dealt every useless card in the pack.

On Tuesday we continued our interviews for the Communities and Livelihoods study, and I want to share one of the parent stories we encountered.

Mother M aged 24, with two children aged 3 and 4 who are both attending the pre-school. Mother M has a visible defect to her mouth which impairs her speech.

As a result of this birth defect, she did not go to school. This, a cultural norm in many rural settings in Sri Lanka. Her family was broken up by the civil war, forcibly recruited, now ‘missing’.

Her husband ran away 3 months ago and she is now living with her Father. Her Father makes bricks, the only trade in the area, and has made a makeshift mud house accommodation for his daughter and grandchildren.

The family income was 1000 rps (£4.75) last month. The family have no electricity.

And when asked about how long the journey to pre-school was, Mother M was unable to tell time.

Mother M is my age.

The process of interviewing OST pre-school parents has been truly illuminating. Each pre-school has nuances. Both in terms of available amenities, legacy of war or Tsunami and attitudes towards education and the role of NGOs. It will be our task now to clean, sift and analyse this rich dataset, with over 180 separate stories to tell.

Most stories have elements of bad luck. Many are uplifting in the face of bad luck. Few, like Mother M, seemed so bereft of luck. Bereft of opportunity. Bereft of hope.

Whether it is luck or hope, OST is providing something palpable. For many parents, hope centres around the village pre-school.

The hope is, that for families like Mother M, accessing pre-school education provides her children with a stronger set of cards than she was dealt. Enabling a stronger and securer first step onto the educational ladder.