For this audio story, I will be interviewing Hashini Perera, a Sri Lankan student at Thompson Rivers University to talk about the economic crisis currently happening in Sri Lanka. The goal of this interview is to make others understand the situation Sri Lanka is in and how much our people are suffering because of the corruption of the government.

Script

 Navin: Hi everyone my name is Navin Muthuarachchi. I’m here today to interview a student from Sri Lanka to talk about the economic crisis currently happening in the country. Why don’t you introduce yourself?

Hashini: Hi I’m Hashnini, I’m an international student from Sri Lanka, I’m in my third-year computer science

Navin: cool! so tell us a little about Sri Lanka

Hashini: Sri Lanka is an island as known as the pearl of the Indian ocean. It is also enriched with extensive plains and stunning mountains as well as beautiful temples. Sri Lanka has lovely beaches around the country and tea plantations.

Navin: Well that sounds lovely. anyway, why don’t we jump right into the topic? Sri Lanka is undergoing an economic crisis at the moment. Can you elaborate on that?

Hashini: The downfall of the country started when Gotabaya Rajapakse was elected as the president of Sri Lanka, and he started borrowing money from major countries as a cover for the development of the country but decided to keep it for himself.

Navin: well, that’s not good so what happened to the economy of the country after that

Hashini: This caused the economy to collapse as we lost access to the overseas markets as a consequence the imports of fuel and other essential items were put on hold, and everything became too hard to afford. people have a hard time feeding their families and filling up their vehicles with gas. The limited available gas has caused major queues at gas stations.

Navin: that’s really a tough spot to be in Sri Lanka. As an international student, how did this affect you?

Hashini: international tuition fee is very expensive so it’s almost impossible for the students to work part-time and earn sufficient funds, so we always depend on our parents for that but, since the banks won’t allow sending large amounts of money abroad due to the inflation, parents have a hard time sending enough money for to tuition. For that reason, many international students have to work multiple jobs in the summer.

Navin: wow so being an international student from Sri Lanka put us in a really difficult spot but anyways, thank you so much for doing this interview with me and sharing the situation in your country

Hashini: No problem thanks for having me