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| Sunday, 23 January 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Children of the tsunami : Where's home by Nisansala Aryachandra Perhaps one of the most agonising experiences in a disaster is the waste of young lives, stagnated from fulfilling their aspirations. In any time of disaster, natural or manmade, children are the most affected. They are the most likely to be oppressed, overloaded, ignored and eventually deprived of their rights.
Children freely passing through their days in the relief camp at the Katukurunda Roman Catholic Church can only be described as a 'disguise of a reflection of what was.' What can they do? They are only children, its in their nature to act this way. However, their eyes and faces speak of the sweet innocence lost, shattered childhood forcing them into a transition from childhood to adulthood overnight, and to go through it all, alone. Nevertheless, their smiles and the occassional sniggerings when posed with a question like "Chandi wada kara kara innawa ne" or when they are lost in their own childish engagements, joking away at each other, brings a token of normalcy in the midst of pain and suffering. The placid surface of illusion, however, collides more often with the surpressed reality of what is. The small incidents, the actions and the scenarios of various situations reveal the actual state of their minds in this relief centre. For these children, getting through each day is an enormous struggle. Early morning they start off helping each other and their elders. Their primary concern is food. Meals are given thrice a day, along with tea in the morning and evening, while the young come every once in a while to their parents, at intervals from playing or helping their elders in the chores of the day, to get a sip of tea - most of the time, its only tea. They quench their thirst and surpress their hunger this way, until a late lunch and retire to their routine again. There is a nagging question that weighs on the minds of the young and old alike. Whether they have been forgotten - by the government in their rehabilitation and reconstruction plan? It is not surprising for them to depend on the government for their sustenance at this time. All they need is a little push to get back to their lives. It is often true that it is one thing to know the world we live in, and another to know it by direct experiences. But then, when we see pain, we feel it, because as human beings pain is inalienable to life. And there are no boundaries or limits when the heart of a person is opened up to feel the pain and sorrow of people, you can never suppress it or pretend that it does not exist. It may burn every one of you, so that you too will live through the experience. For these children, they need to feel the warmth of a home, a place they feel secure and protected. They need to feel like children again, because every minute that is spent, is a minute that robs them of their childhood. It is time they went home, to stability, love and warmth of a family. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
The number of displaced and orphaned children have never been in such
numbers, as since the horrendous calamity of December 26. The untold
memories of the ones lost, flashes of pictures that will probably haunt
them for the rest of their lives can only be explained with time. It is
enough to completely ruin the lives of one whole generation.
