The Nambikkai children from poorer families either did not attend school before the tsunami struck or studied in government-run schools. “However, there are many other poor tsunami victim children who need our help, and we are planning to build one or two separate homes for them.” If I take more children into this home, I shall not be able to provide them as much support as I want,” said Mr. “I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew. Social workers are now urging the couple to take in more tsunami orphans. The children of Nambikkai - ranging in age from 3 to 15 years - are from poor fishing families. When some people call them ‘tsunami orphans’ and call Nambikkai an orphanage, I feel offended because we are their parents and we are still alive,” said Mr. In our first life, we had three children. “We shall give them the best housing, clothing, food and education that we can, we have pledged to God.
#Mr children live full#
Paramesvaran has taken full responsibility for their welfare, including their schooling. Paramesvaran, an oil technician in a state-owned company, turned the ground floor of his large villa into a home for 16 tsunami orphans and named it “Nambikkai,” meaning “hands of hope.”īecause of strict government rules, he has not been able to formally adopt the children, but Mr. More than 250 children lost both parents, and about 900 more lost a mother or father. Soon, other children followed from other fishing villages of Nagapattinam, where the tsunami took about 8,000 lives. Paramesvaran.Ī month after the tragedy, the couple brought four orphans into their home. Then we saw the miseries of some just-orphaned children in our neighborhood and heard a voice from God offering us consolation, we found hope of a new life,” said Mrs. “We were terribly depressed and felt life without our children was meaningless on this Earth. The distraught couple was contemplating suicide when “God asked” them to stop grieving and start a new life with some other children orphaned by the tsunami. Paramesvaran said in a tear-choked voice. Before placing all three of them in that grave, I kissed them and begged forgiveness for not being able to get them a proper burial,” Mr.
The whole town being shut down, I could not buy flowers or coffins for them. “I washed and dressed my children’s bodies, and then dug a grave in the burial ground with my own hands. Paramesvaran and his wife, Choodamani, found the bodies of their three children and those of his wife’s seven relatives lying among hundreds of others on the beach. The man saved himself by clinging to a palm tree. He caught hold of his son for a few seconds before the killer waves wrested the little boy away. Paramesvaran had no chance to reach his daughters. They were tossing a Frisbee on the beach when the sea turned hostile. Paramesvaran had taken his three children and seven relatives of his wife to the nearby beach for a stroll. On the morning of the day after Christmas, Mr. The photograph of Rakshanya, 12, Karunya, 9, and Kirubasan, 5, was taken days before the tragedy last year. “I still remember how my daughters’ shrill cries for help were buried by surging water, and how I vainly tried to save my son by holding him to my chest.” Tears rolled down his cheeks and his voice trailed off as he held a framed picture of himself and the three children.
My two daughters brought me tea, wished me many happy returns, and kissed me,” Mr. “I vividly remember how my son Kirubasan pulled me from bed and wished me a happy birthday. 26 birthday, the undersea earthquake struck and turned the day into the most horrible of his life.
Last year when he turned 40 and his three children were preparing to celebrate his Dec.