The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : Smiles are back on their faces, at last

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Monday, Jun 30, 2008
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Smiles are back on their faces, at last

Satyasundar Barik

SOS Village has been taking care of the orphans

The children at SOS Village near Bhubaneswar.

BHUBANESWAR: Smile from the faces of nine-year-old Geeta Majhi her schoolmate Hasik Sahu and their friend Debaraj never fades away.

But all these children studying in Class 3 at Raj Bhawan Upper Primary School have one thing in common. All these children, once belonging to remote villages under Kashipur block of Rayagada district had lost their parents. As many as eight girls and boys all below the age of nine had lost their parents when fatal cholera killed over 150 persons in three southern districts last year. They were found wandering by city-based SOS Children’s Village.

Six months down the line, they can now visualise a new whole world. “I want to become Mahendra Singh Dhoni,” quips Debaraj, who had neither watched television before nor had ever gone to a school.

The Rayagada district administration had prepared a list of 26 children, who lost both their parents when cholera and diarrhea assumed epidemic proportion.

When these children were brought to here, smiles had already disappeared from their faces. “We took them to a number of scenic places, temples and zoos. We gave assignments to keep them occupied. Subsequently, they were admitted in a Government-run school. Now they have learnt how to get on with the life,” says SOS village in-charge R.K. Patra.

Sometime nightmares haunt them. However, they have now discovered a new life in the SOS village along with 100 more children. .

According to Jyotika Das, a senior co-worker, these children are also good at studies.

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