Hurricane Sidr: Deaths of parents leave children traumatised

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Seven-year old Mariam lost both her parents in the November 15 cyclone. She does not know how to carry the weight of being all by herself at this tender age.

She cries for the dear ones she lost, but cannot continue for long as she feels pangs of hunger.

“Would you give us some food?” Mariam asked a group of journalists on a visit to Charkhali village of Mirzaganj in Patuakhali. She along with others rushed to the visitors, taking them as relief workers.

Disheartened, she began to sob again.

Khalil, 35, of Asharchar in Barguna, lost all of his 13-member family except two-year-old daughter Mishti and 40-year-old brother Jalil. Mishti has luckily made it through the monster cyclone but her survival now means constant worries for her father and uncle.

“She doesn’t eat rice or any other solid food. We don’t know how we are going to feed her and keep alive,” Jalil, her uncle, cries with frustration.

According to organisations running relief operations in the southern districts, children and women make up most of the 3000 plus people who have so far been reported dead in Cyclone Sidr.

Abdur Rashid Chaklader of Charkhali village has lost his wife and two of the three daughters. Only he and his youngest daughter have survived.

“We didn’t pay much heed that a disaster was approaching us. And it was too late when we saw the waters rushing towards our village. Still I tried. Keeping hold of my daughters’ arms I started swimming. But I couldn’t save my baby girls except the youngest one,” said Rashid narrating the moments when he watched in horror heavy swell taking his daughters away forever.

Abdul Kader of Boroitoli village said children are no less vulnerable in the aftermath. “Grown-ups can survive without food at least for two to three days, but it is very hard to tolerate hunger for the young ones.”

Relief workers say even those who did not lose their parents have in fact become “functionally orphans” in the cyclone.

Talking to The Daily Star at his office in the city, Gawher Nayeem Wahra, emergency focal person of Save the Children-UK, said, “The elders are busy jostling for relief. How they will care for their kids when they do not even know if they would get the minimum food they need to live on.”

“Deaths of parents and family members have left most of the children traumatised. It is very important to help them recover from the psychological damage,” he added lamenting that the authorities concerned do not seem aware of the grave peril the children are in.

He said International Save the Children Alliance is now registering those who have lost any or both their parents.

“An adolescent girl who has lost her mother has got to be very lonely. She needs special care,” Wahra said.

He added that Save the Children-UK and its partners have already set up 10 shelters–three in Sharonkhola, one in Patuakhali and six in Barguna–for the children to spend time there during daytime and return to families in the evening.

Each of those centres built with whatever materials were available immediately after the storm can accommodate around 250 children. While at shelters, the kids are given hot and solid meal at least once a day, he noted.

“We think we would better let the children without parents or with a single parent grow up in their own environments than taking them to orphanage.”

Everyone involved in the ongoing relief efforts should think seriously about the matter, he said, adding: “Negligence to children is a form of abuse.”

Nayeem said they have plans to establish at least 100 more shelters.

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