Name: Mythilli Sivarasa
Age: 20 years old
Her mum died when she was young. In the last attacks, her elder sister was captured and is still not released yet and she lost his elder brother too. She survived together with her dad and another elder brother but was out in camp.
In camp, there was no drinking water or just water even for bathing. They had to go without bathing for many days. There were no toilet facilities. They had to live in a tent where there was no ventilation. There were no means of studying properly yet she took her O level exams in camp itself and passed. She stayed in camp for 1 whole year.
God’s Own Children had then sent out an announcement talking about accepting children who are facing difficulties with home life, who have lost their parents or who are too poor to afford education, that they can stay in the “home” to continue their studies. She then came to Puloly.
But after some time, government officials came and said that this place is too small for the number of kids that they are housing. They apparently blamed GOC for things like, no toilet facilities and that the kids are cramped up in the houses. Whereas, she felt that the Puloly Children’s Village was really a great home for the kids. The food was great and staff were loving and most importantly, they got to attend school. She had no difficulties staying here but the court stated otherwise. Government officials took down names and announced to them some of them have to be taken away to another “home” due to space constraints. She fainted after much wailing.
When she was admitted in the hospital, together with many others, officials from the courts came and “protected” them from staff of Puloly Children’s Village. They had lied to the children saying they need to come to courts to sign some papers before getting dropped off back to Puloly Children’s Village(PVC). After signing off at the courts, they were all transferred to different “home”, everything but .
The other ‘homes’ were not as bad as camp but were not as good as PVC. There were still no studying facilities and such, hence, her father had brought her back home to Vanni. However, in Vanni, she couldn’t continue to do her A levels as she had to walk to 5km alone everyday before reaching school. They couldn’t even afford a bicycle but more importantly, it was not safe to walk go alone due to police patrolling everywhere.
She had contacted Dr.B.Anandkumar Sir who is her beloved god-father, and told him what she was going through. Sir then put her in another home as the court didn’t allow her to come back to PVC. GOC is funding her stay in a relations’ house and her studies. He bought for her new clothes, new uniforms, new shoes, now books and everything else she needed to start anew. Right not she is happy with where she is. She is hoping to do her A levels only next year. The rest of her family is still in Vanni camp living under the same conditions she was before.
Name: Illineero Maannikkarsa
Age: 17 years old
Dad died in the attacks. Her younger sister and mum are in camp and her younger brother is in another hostel. In 2009, she got hurt due to the bomb attacks and was in hospital for a long-period of time.
Her family was standing in a circle, crouching when a bomb hit them right in the middle. They dispersed in panic and shock. Her brother went missing for a while. It wasn’t until much later, that her mum noticed her father’s body in the sea waters.
They were staying in camp for one year. Her mum had got chicken pox due to the lack of ventilation and overheating inside the tents. This also led to occasional blindness. Men could go out of the camp and work to bring back proper food as the food given in camp was little and tasteless. But since, she had lost her father, her family had to survive on what they got at camp. The mum often sold the food as they had to pay for medical expenses since they often fell sick in camp due to unhygienic living conditions. They could only go out of camp for medical issues or for work.
Dr.Anankumar Sir took notice of her when he went to visit the camp. She brought forward to tell him about her problems and Sir brought her to Puloly so that she can continue her studies. However, she got shortlisted in just like how Mythilli did. As she also blacked out during when the government officials took the kids away, she fell into the same fate at the hospital as Mythilli. Now she is put in a hostel as she is still doing her O levels. She is funded by GOC, both for her stay in the hostel and education.
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