Helping young survivors of the world's disasters

In a split second, a disaster can change everything for children.

Some children lose their parents and some are left permanently disabled, while others become homeless.

Weak and vulnerable, children suffered just as much, if not more, than adults when disaster struck during the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

They survived, and many thrived. They were amazingly resilient in their struggles. Often, it was love that sustained them.

Song Xinyi, a 3-year-old girl, was found alive after being buried under debris for more than 40 hours in the wake of the magnitude-8 earthquake that hit Wenchuan, a county in China's southwestern Sichuan province, in May 2008.

The girl was one of more than 600 children who were made orphans by the earthquake.

Although she lost her parents and her right leg in the quake, everybody around her offered love and help.

She was adopted by her uncle, Song Gang, 28, who was still single and had no experience raising a child. To take better care of Xinyi, he gave up his job and became a full-time father.

Xinyi got free admission to a local kindergarten. There, other kids made a point of avoiding speaking about parents in front of her. They rushed to help her up when she fell to the ground while walking with her artificial leg.

The girl's uncle met and fell in love with a nurse while Xinyi was undergoing treatment at a hospital. She agreed to marry him and not have a child until Xinyi was 8 years old.

An 8-year-old Chinese-Indonesian boy, whose Chinese name is Chen Jian'an, was just as lucky.

He was redeemed by the love of a stranger during the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004.

Chen was swept away from his family in Banda Aceh by a raging torrent of waters. After drifting for a long distance, he was saved just before he lost consciousness by a woman who pulled him out of the water.

On that tumultuous day of the tsunami disaster, the woman, who just lost her own son, held Chen tightly in her arms and told him not to be afraid.

"Let me be your mom if you can not find your parents," she told him fondly, and began to look after him, as a mother would tend to her own child. She helped him find his family, and he still calls her "mom" when visiting with his parents.

"He told me he would take me to travel abroad and make a pilgrimage to Mecca," the Muslim woman said.

Now the young boy says he is prepared for anything.

"If the tsunami comes again, I will take care of my younger brother and sister and not let them become lost from the family," he said.

Denis Opoka showed the same responsibility for his brother and sister after his parents were killed by an armed rebel group in the Ajulu village in northern Uganda.

Denis was only 10 years old at that time. He was hidden in a relative's house and escaped the massacre, along with his 8-year-old brother and 5-year-old sister.

"They are too young to live by themselves, so I cannot leave them," Opoka said.

Living in their mud hut in the remote village, he managed to feed the family of three and continue their education at a local school.

The children work on weekends at a neighbor's garden in exchange for a little money to buy soap, candles or salt.

"When things are hard to get and we don't have anything to cook, we sleep hungry," Opoka said.

But they never give up. After school every day, he tutors his young siblings. He wants to study at a technical institute to learn enough skills to get a job.

"Then I will be able to pay tuition fees for my brother and sister," he said.

Children can be the weakest group whenever a crisis hits. That is why the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly 20 years ago, defined child protection as a priority in emergencies.

Under the UN convention, humanitarian actions include establishing child-friendly spaces, mobilizing communities for child protection and integrating child protection into disaster preparation.

Undoubtedly, more love also will help children recover from the trauma of disasters.

Xinhua

(China Daily 12/05/2009 page10)