Bede Griffiths Charitable Trusts - Muttom

MAXSON

This is Maxson, he is 7 years old. His mother came to see Selvi last week to beg her to take two of her children, Maxson and his sister Mini aged 9. Selvi told her she could only take one as she is trying to keep to one child per family, so the mother sent her son. He is so thin and little for his age, but has settled in very well. Still, he looked so sad and nervous when he arrived at the St. Adrian's Reachout Centre.

Yesterday Maxson didn’t come home from school with the other children and we were worried about him. He turned up much later saying he couldn’t find his bus pass so he’d walked the kilometre from school alone with his heavy bag, barefoot. He has no shoes. Selvi told him to go home and fetch his mother. She came, told her story and cried to Selvi.

BENO

My name is Beno. I am 13 years old and I am studying in std 8th. When I was five years old, my father went fishing, but he never came back and left us as orphans. I have a sister and three brothers. My mother had a petty shop to earn our daily bread. We were poor, but a loving family.

Though I am studying, I had never heard the word tsunami, this unexpected terrible force, which within no time wiped out all our little belongings. We were left without anything, so we took shelter in the camp.

Many organizations came forward to relieve the tsunami victims, but it did not reach real deserving people. Many needy ones were neglected and they suffered lot. For our family, we were also left with out any help and we continued to be in the same helpless situation.

I met one of my classmates who was at St Adrian's Reachout Centre. She was very happy and looked smart, so I enquired about the centre and with my mother I went to meet Sr. Selvi. When he heard our sad situation, Sr. Selvi admitted me into the centre. Now I am happy and doing well in my studies and learning many more things in the centre. My ambition in life is to be a collector (district administrator) to serve the needy and unfortunate ones to brighten their lives.

MERBINSON

My name is Merbinson.  I am 10 years old.  I have a father, mother and brother, who is 12 years old.  We were a very happy family with two boys and a sweet little sister. After the Tsunami, I lost my only sister, house, and other belongings. My father is not able to go for work anymore. My mother is in shock.  She lost her memory and is always in tears thinking about our only sister. So far she has not come out of the shock and is in tears all the time.

It was 26.12.04 after Sunday mass.  We were wearing new clothes and had gone out to play with all our friends.  My sister was with her friends too. We were so many children.  We all saw the sea waves very high and the water went back, so we all ran to catch fish. I only know that much.

After a day, I was taken by some of our relatives to the church. I saw so many dead bodies:  my sister and all her friends, four of them were no more. After that we were left without anyone to take care of my brother and me. My father and mother were in the hospital; we were in the camp with our grandmother.  She's not able to look after us either.

That was the time Sister Selvi came to the camp and took me to the centre and my brother was sent to the other hostel. Now I am happy in the Centre but I can never see my mother like before or my father going to work every time they go to hospital. I long to see my parents as before as they were happy, hard working and loving parents.