Indika Wadu Gedara, left, and her younger daughter Kavindi, 11, in their garden in Napier. Photo / Jack Riddell
A family moved across the world to Hawke’s Bay for a better life, but fate had other ideas.
Now, a single mother is trying to keep her young family in New Zealand after her husband suddenly died.
Indika Wadu Gedara and her husband Indika Lokuappu Kuttige moved to Napier from Sri Lanka in 2023.
Kuttige was a telecommunications technician for Data Telecom and had immigrated to New Zealand on an accredited employer work visa, bringing his family with him.
The family purchased a home in suburban Napier for their two pre-teen daughters to grow up in.
“We settled here very happily,” Gedara said.
Kuttige eventually ended up having to relocate to Wellington for work during the weekdays and would return to Napier to see his family on weekends.
As Kuttige worked as a technician, Gedara worked as a housekeeper and looked after the children.
“Our life followed very happily,” she said.
But that all changed one Friday in June 2024.
Kuttige returned from a day of work, enjoyed a meal with his kids and went to bed.
The couple were in separate beds so they could sleep better. Gedara went to her own bed soon after.
But in the middle of the night, Kuttige awoke and began to call for Gedara.
She went to his side and was sitting and talking with him.
Then he went to the bathroom. Gedara turned around and saw Kuttige suddenly collapse.
At the house that night was a tenant who worked as a caregiver.
The tenant tried performing CPR before they put Kuttige in the car and took him to hospital.
But it was too late.
He died of a heart attack on June 14, 2024.
Now Gedara and her daughters’ visas are set to expire in May, meaning they could be forced out of the country they have come to call home.
“I can’t go back to Sri Lanka,” she said.
Gedara wants to keep her girls at school in New Zealand, saying she fears their education will go backwards if they return to Sri Lanka because the systems are different.
Every day Gedara’s daughters ask her what their futures hold but she can’t tell them – she doesn’t know.
Gedara said she wouldn’t feel safe back in Sri Lanka, where she claimed women can’t leave the house after 6pm.
Gedara said it was Kuttige’s wish to move to New Zealand so his family could have a good, comfy life. They sold their home in Sri Lanka to relocate.
All that remains in Sri Lanka for the family is Gedara’s parents, but she claimed they are unable to care for them all.
She also claimed widows in Sri Lanka faced some discrimination.
“There is very little bit social issues – some people look at me and my daughters without father very badly,” she said.
“It’s bad thing, you know. It’s cultural thing. Some people don’t like to face a mourning widow.”
Gerada wants to move her family to Auckland to be with her sister and her children.
Gedara’s lawyer is assisting the family with a visa application to Immigration NZ. However, she is unsure what will happen.
“She told me just relax, she will do something, but she also told me don’t hope,” Gerada claimed.
Gerada has spent the last six months working as a housekeeper at a Napier hotel.
“I can work and manage my everything,” she said.
For her, the mission is to secure her children’s futures in New Zealand.
“My whole world is now my kids. They want to stay here,” Gerada said.
“They lost their world, their father. I can’t let them lose another thing.”
Immigration NZ acting operations director Marcelle Foley said where a person holds an accredited employer work visa, their partner and dependent children are typically in New Zealand on visas that are linked to the principal visa holder.
If the principal visa holder dies, those linked visas do not automatically remain valid under immigration instructions.
“There is no expectation that families depart New Zealand immediately following a death, and such matters are handled with sensitivity while individual circumstances are considered,” Foley said.
“However, family members who wish to remain in New Zealand must ensure they hold a valid visa to do so.”
In some cases, affected family members may be eligible to apply for alternative visas, depending on eligibility and requirements.
“Each case is assessed on its own merits, taking into account factors such as the family’s situation and their ties to New Zealand,” she said.
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.