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Pakistan Student's GYSD Reflection
On the 8th of
October 2005 we were hit by a severe earthquake. It happened so quickly
that no body realized what happened. Thousands of houses were destroyed
and millions of people died. I was watching all this live on the TV. I
saw small children crying for their parents who they thought were alive
but they were no more in this world. I was very sad to see the children
crying. I always wished to meet these children and on 23rd March I got
an opportunity to meet them. We went to Ashiana camp in Attock to meet
the quake victims. This camp was full of mud before the
earthquake but Pakistan government turned the place into a [relief
camp]. Within two days they cleaned this camp and painted it. There are
three buildings in this camp. One is used as a hostel, second as a
hospital and the third as a school. Just as we entered this
camp we saw the children who were still thinking about earthquake which
severely affected their lives. I went there the aim to give them gifts,
sing songs and play games with them. Not only me but also my whole
class helped make the children enjoy. My friends and I had
decided to ask them questions related to the time of earthquake
[such as], "what they were doing when the earthquake started?, What was
the first thing they wanted to do when they realized how horrible it
was?, What happened afterwards?, and how did they survived?".
I would like to write one interview that I have taken from a ninth class boy:
What is your name?: Rizwan.
Where were you when the earthquake came?: I was in my school.
What were you doing?: I was attending assembly.
What were your feelings when the earthquake came?: We realized that
the ground had a severe jerk; we all started pushing each other to save
our lives. I saw that my school building was collapsed.
Did you go to your home?: Yes, but my home collapsed only my mother was alive and my whole family died.
After this we told [the children] to get together in assembly hall and
we played games with them. Many of them participated in games. We sang
a song with them after each of the presentation. We gave them gifts,
and the children shared very nice jokes with us. Many of children
were from Muzafarabad, Balakot and Kashmir. We danced and made them
dance too. In this way, we helped to lighten up one of their dark
days with a promise of hope.
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