Tsunami children now dreaming of the future (Five years after tsunami)

NAGAPATTINAM - Collectively they are called tsunami children, those who lost one or both parents to the Indian Ocean tsunami that hit the state on Dec 26, 2004. Of them, 55 girls and three boys live in the Annai Sathya Government Orphanage here. They don’t want to think of that day any more.

M. Banupriya, 17, lost her father to the killer wave. Now she says: “Why recall that tragic day and the event?”

Though her mother is alive the 12th Class student is in the orphanage because of the family’s poor financial condition.

Helped by NGOs to restart her life after the tsunami, Banupriya wants to become a social worker.

“The social workers have helped many affected by the tsunami. I am one of the beneficiaries and I would like to become one to serve society,” she told IANS.

The other profession that interests many children in the orphanage is teaching, perhaps due to the care their teachers took in the aftermath of the tsunami.

“I ran away from the wave but my father died. I want to become a teacher as my father wished,” 14-year-old K. Muthulakshmi said.

Naveena, 16, and Abirami, 14, echoed Muthulakshmi.

Affected by the same event and suffering similar loss and emotional trauma, the children in the orphanage have developed strong bonds.

“Whenever a girl feels bad we will immediately comfort her citing our own condition to that girl. The next day she will do the same to someone else,” said Shakila, a resident.

According to matron A. Mahalakshmi, the girls generally prefer to be at the orphanage even during festival times rather than visit their relatives.

One girl said she would not like to go to her father as he married again.

“We have to force them to go to their relatives’ place once in a while. Generally the children are comfortable here now,” Sivakami, helper at the orphanage since it was set up in 2005, told IANS.

“Initially girls used to be sorrowful musing about their past, their parents. We used to comfort them. But now they have also grown up and have come to terms with their life,” she added.

Though the sea changed their lives in a cruel way the girls do not fear the sea now.

“Earlier they used to fear, but not any more. Some girls participate in swimming competitions and win prizes,” Mahalakshmi said.

“Yes, Dec 26 is approaching. Normally we pray on that day. Last year we planted some saplings,” said 14-year-old V. Soundaravalli who lost her parents to tsunami.

“My mother was sick and was at home while father went to the beach. Father died in the second wave while mother died in the first.”

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in)