🇱🇰 Voice#01: A 19-Year-Old Working To Keep His Dreams Alive

Making a living through online entrepreneurship

Jul 27, 2022

The following article has been written in collaboration with a 19-year-old student living in Sri Lanka to document his experiences and how he tries to navigate living in an inflated and unstable government.

Family Background

Among the 22 million Sri Lankans, I am a college student who turned 19 this year and is struggling with the country’s current situation. Life as a Sri Lankan has been much more complicated than in previous years. I live with my father, who works an 8-to-5 job, and my mother, who doesn’t have a job. After other small incomes from our small-scale plantations, I would like to call us a mid-class family.

A Crippling Situation That Has Worsened Over the Years

The inflation in the country has affected every single person’s life. Imports of fuel, LPG, and essential medicines have been severely restricted due to several circumstances.

If we look at the USD to Sri Lankan Rupee chart, the US dollar rate suddenly rose abruptly from about 200 LKR to 350 LKR (75% price increase) within a few days. According to the yearly reports, the Colombo Consumer Price Index has increased from 39.1% in May to 54.6% in June 2022. Because of the decrease in fuel imports, public transportation systems have been crippled. As a result, human relationships got distanced.

It’s been a few months since I last visited my friend physically, who lives a few cities away.

Food

Sri Lanka has unbelievably fertile soil. Until now, there were different types of cultivation to support the population’s food requirements. But that was a story of the past. The harvest has started to decrease due to the unavailability of fertilizers for farmers and fuel for machines.

As a result, essential items like rice, the staple food of Sri Lanka, needed to be imported. A loaf of bread has doubled its price, leading to low-income families skipping meals.

My family used to have a balanced diet before. But now we also have to narrow down the meals because of the extreme prices and shortage of food items within the country.

However, we have some pre-grown vegetables and fruits in the garden. So that will be a little help for us. The rarity of getting a perfect meal has increased due to this situation.

Transportation

There was a decent transportation system until recently. But how can a transportation system work properly with the severe fuel shortage?

The fuel liter price has increased, putting more pressure on the average citizen’s income. In addition, fuel queues extend for multiple miles. Vehicle owners must spend days in those queues, leaving their jobs. As a result, people started to show an interest in bicycles. But it wasn’t as easy as they thought. Surprisingly, inflation has increased the price of bicycles by two or more times.

Therefore, It’s been a while since I visited my relatives. My father has to leave his job for a day to stay in the queue to get a minimal amount of fuel. If the fuel station runs out while he is in the queue, he must return hopelessly. For those reasons, public transportation has been left ineffective.

Income

Everyone’s income has lost its value with the increasing price of the US Dollar. That means our quality of life has started to decrease. My father’s earnings from his job and the other small incomes from small plantations have to support my learning career. Paying for tuition classes and other costly learning materials is starting to pressure our income.

So as a survival mechanism, as everyone started to pay attention to online entrepreneurship, I also decided to sell my skills on Fiverr. Bringing at least a few dollars to the country during the difficult times of 3-hour daily power outages and increased internet costs is one of the best things an individual could do during this crisis.

My income isn’t the greatest so far. But I am so happy with every dollar because it will try to strengthen the income of my family.

It’s hard to think about the future of the country. Getting back to the previous level will take years, or maybe decades. But unfortunately, because of the mismanaged acts of the government, the country has fallen into a deep trench.

Finally, there have been multiple protests all over the country to kick out the president, and hundreds of thousands of people joined them. Now, the parliament has assigned a new president. However, people can’t imagine their future.

As the problem is a lack of foreign currency, I think everyone must pay attention to online entrepreneurship.

I feel like my dreams have been pushed away. But they are still on the line. So I must use my full strength to reach them as soon as possible. And everyone should not give up either.

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