The Hindu : New Delhi News : Rebuilding the world that shook

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 25, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Rebuilding the world that shook

Staff Reporter

Young volunteers visit Kashmir to help earthquake victims

NEW DELHI: It was the first big step towards becoming adults for three youngsters who had gone to Kashmir to help the victims of the earthquake that tore apart the lives of thousands a year ago. During their first real experience of handling a tragedy, they found that there were many who were still to recover from the day their world shook.

"We found that people were crying for relief and not much had changed for them. Rehabilitation in the real sense of the word is still absent,'' said Natasha, a Class XII student, who had volunteered to be part of the ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony And Democracy) team that went to Kashmir to help with relief work.

While many victims of the tragedy are waiting for "normalcy'' to return to the troubled Valley, these young people found that the scars of the earthquake are still fresh. And children, one of the most vulnerable sections in a natural disaster, are perhaps the worst sufferers as schools have been among the biggest casualties of the earthquake.

"There is no infrastructure for schools. There is also no one to monitor the children or their progress. We did a socio-economic survey of three villages and found that there were no toilets, no playgrounds and very few school buildings. One of the biggest problems is that there are no education facilities,'' said Manan, a young student from Gujarat who was part of the ANHAD team.

Apart from lagging behind in their schoolwork, the other big problem seems to be lack of ways to cope with the trauma that children had faced.

With practically no counselling for children to deal with their loss, kids are battling constant nightmares.

"There is a great need to sensitise teachers about the kind of agony that these children have been through. We visited primary schools where teachers slapped children if they did something wrong. Teachers have grown up in an environment surrounded by violence and unfortunately they have become immune to it," charged Satyam, a graduate from Delhi University.

Filled with enthusiasm and a desire to make a difference, these three youngsters are planning to go back to Kashmir to offer their services once again. ANHAD, which sent a team immediately after the earthquake, has been working in the area for quite some time now.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi

News Update

Stories in this Section