Tsunami Disaster - Psychosocial Care for Children [PDF] - Nimhans

He has collected some fifty biscuit packets but has not eaten a single biscuit.* 15-year-old Manjula was swept away by the waves of the sea. She was rescued bypeople from her locality. However, she had already swallowed sand by that time. She vomitedsand four times after being rescued. Subsequently she often coughs, has fever on and offand has become very weak. She hardly has any energy. She has lost weight. She is unable tosleep and eat properly.* 15-year-old Fernandes was away from the village when the tsunami struck hisvillage. On returning, he found his house completely destroyed. Now his parents have built atemporary shelter. But Fernandes refuses to stay there. He is extremely fearful. Earlier heused to attend school, which is little distance away from his village. Now after the tsunami,on his insistence, parents have sent him to the school hostel.* 15-year-old Thomas had a Christmas celebration with his family on 25th December.Next day early morning, Thomas got up and took a bus, as he wanted to meet his friendin the church. While he was in the bus, the tsunami struck. There were damages to his bus buthe managed to escape. On his return home, he found that all his family members had died inthe disaster. His friend whom he was supposed to meet had also died. Thomas found a briefcaselying and did not know who the owner was. He broke open the briefcase and took outsome money. The first thing he did was he went and bought a camera. He took snaps of thedead bodies and the destruction all around. He always carries those photographs along withhim and keeps viewing them every now and then. He says that he wants to see how it happened.He feels guilty that he had left his family members while they had been sleeping. Hesays that life is meaningless to him and he wants to die. He often feels like committingsuicide.* 17-year-old Nagraja lost his father at an early age. His mother was unable to runthe house due to financial constraints. Hence, Nagraja was forced to drop out of school toearn money. He has one brother and one sister who are paralytic patients. He has two sisterswho are of marriageable age. With a lot of difficulty, he had managed to make a house andthe house warming ceremony was only two days prior to the tsunami. The tsunami washedaway Nagraja’s newly constructed house. He used to earn his living by fishing. However,after the tsunami he has become too scared to go out into the sea for fishing. Consequentlyhe has developed feelings of emptiness and helplessness. He feels lost and does not knowwhat to do in life.These case stories reflect how children of different age groups react to a disasterTOT INFORMATION MANUAL - 1 15