Prema Selvam did not even have a 10-rupee note.
She works carrying bricks with her younger children by her side, until a fever knocked her down for three months. When her 7-year-old son Kaliyappan came home from school asking for food and burst into tears from hunger, Prema remembered that she had something of value left: her own hair. She sold it for 150 rupees, barely 2 dollars, and used the money to buy three packets of rice.
The relief was short-lived. When desperation began to haunt her again, her sister arrived just in time to stop her. Days later, a man named Bala Murugan—who as a child experienced a similar tragedy in his own family—learned her story and shared it on social media. In 24 hours, 1,670 dollars were raised.
Prema asked for the fundraising to stop as soon as it was enough to pay off most of her debt: she wanted to return to work and pay the rest herself. Today, she pays about 10 dollars a month to her creditors, and local authorities promised her help to open a small milk business.