Tsunami
Survivors
Back
to Index
Tsunami
orphans face uncertain future
|
A orphan
child in the army relief camp in Karunagapally in
Kerala
|
Pattinacheri
(Tamil Nadu): Of all those left behind helpless by the
tsunami attack that left behind a swathe of death and destruction,
the orphaned girls in Tamil Nadu, it seems, are the worst
affected. Fifteen year-old Mahalaxmi is one of the unfortunate,
who after having lost her father in childhood now has to
go through the trauma of losing her mother And how cruel
could fate be that her sister Sellama's fianci was washed
away on the fateful day? Facing an uncertain future, both
the sisters live in a makeshift hut, with the help of neighbours.
"We did not have a father and our mother took care of us.
But now we have even lost her. I don't know what will we
do now, live or die," said Sellamma. Mahalaxmi is now a
school drop out. "Now it is very difficult for us to continue
our education because we have lost everything," she said.
Sellamma and Mahalaxmi are among thousands of orphans living
a life without a secured future. The government has given
500,000 rupees for children, orphaned by the tsunami but
in most of the cases, the money has not reached the needy.
At least 16,000 people were killed in tsunami in India,
nearly half of them in Tamil Nadu alone.
Thirteen-year-old Ramaiya watched helplessly as her mother
quickly tucked her under a boat, pleading her to hold to
it as hard as possible. It was the last the young girl ever
heard of her mother. Ramaiya survived the onslaught and
wandered for days through her devastated village in Nagapattinam
before being picked up by rescuers. Though now in the safe
confines of the orphanage, she knows her fisherman father
is alive but like dozens others here does not know if he
will ever come to take her back. Incoherent and still hazy
about what really happened, she is clinging on to the only
surety she had in life, - her mother. "I lost my mother,
I remember my mother, I lost my mother," Ramaiya said.
From
fishing villages in south India to plush beach resorts in
Thailand, too small and weak to run fast enough, to swim
or to hold on to safety, kids are the biggest and most tragic
victims of the tsunami. UNICEF estimates at least 50,000
of the 144,000 dead are kids. In some of the worst-hit areas,
at least three of every four children died, wiping out virtually
an entire generation. And even as the children are picking
the pieces in relief homes, doctors have been literally
swamped by the onslaught and the sheer scale of the trauma.
While play has proven as an effective therapy, it is not
enough. Though completely normal during day time, most of
the children here still cry themselves to sleep, missing
the lullabies, bed time stories of their mothers and the
pillow fights with their siblings. Doctors also fear that
the children could end up silently reenacting scenes of
the catastrophe in their minds and avoid anything which
reminds them of the disaster, such as going to the beach
or watching television news. Counsellors from across the
world have rushed to the region to somehow stop the children
from being scarred for life.
|
Two
orphans engaged in reading a book in the govt-run
orphanage in Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu
|
Prakash
Gurnami, a child psychiatrist with the UNICEF, says while
individual attention is critical, initially a comprehensive
counselling package is first being filtered down to all
the child relief centers to arrest immediate damage. "We
have developed a comprehensive programme. In the initial
phase itself when people are doing relief measures, they
realise that this is an important aspect so with the National
Institute of Mental Health, we have developed a omplete
counselling package which is a basic counselling package
which is going down to the relief shelter and the orphanages
to ensure that these children come back to normal surroundings,"
Gurnami said. Psychiatrists add the survivors will suffer
emotional turmoil and grief for months, even years and efforts
should be on to get them into the mainstream like going
to school, at the earliest, which they say will help them
cope better.
- Feb 6, 2005
References: Tsunami, Orphans,
Hotels, Airlines, Ayurveda, Yoga, Hindu, Taj Mahal, Cuisine,
Festival, Temple, Trekking, Hindu, Bharatanatyam, Kathakali,
Odissi, Shimla, Varanasi, Kullu, Manali, Goa, Kovalam, Darjeeling,
Bodh Gaya, Kancheepuram, Thekkady, Mussoorie, Badrinath,
Amar Nath, Vaishno Devi, Tirupathi, Sabarimala, Guruvayoor,
Kanyakumari, Kodaikanal, Ooty, Chennai, Travel News, India
Travel Times, Travel, Tourism, Tour, India, Times, Indian,
Tourist, Indian Cuisines,