Living in a cyclone-devastated village in South Dagon, near Yangon, nine-year-old Ni Ni tries hard to finish her chores - cooking, washing clothes and dishes and fetching water - before noon. If she doesn't finish in time, she might lose the opportunity to play her favorite games with her friends.
Most of the games introduced at a newly set up World Vision Child Friendly Space are new to Ni Ni, and she is excited about playing them.
"I can't lose this opportunity," says Ni Ni, who has never had much time to play. The eldest of three siblings, she had to drop out of school one year ago. Her father's wage as a carpenter was not enough to cover the rising costs of basic commodities.
Since her mother gave birth three months ago, many more household duties have fallen upon Ni Ni's shoulders.
"Mom told me that she can't afford to send me to school," explained the bright girl.
Then, on May 2, Cyclone Nargis made things even worse for Ni Ni. Their family wooden-bamboo house was totally blown down by the storm.
"The wind was too strong. At first the roof was gone and then, the wall. So we had to run to a nearby house," recalled the girl.
"We were really frightened. And the next few days we haven't had regular meals as my father couldn't go to work."
Fortunately, none of the family were seriously injured. Han Ni's father set about repairing the house with whatever materials he could find.
"But it has lots of holes. When it rains, the whole house is soaked," said the girl, the smile on her face fading.
Ni Ni is lucky to still have her family; many children were killed by the storm and many more have been left orphans, sick or hungry in the post-storm chaos.
Myiny Myint, 28, the volunteer of the CFS where Han Ni participates, says more than 200 children take part in two sessions, from 9am-12am and 1pm-4pm. This CFS is set up at a cottage that is usually a community library.
Displaced children or children whose houses have been destroyed by the storm are waiting on assistance to rebuild their homes also participate at the center, she adds.
"This place give them security, happiness and knowledge. If such places weren't set up, these children would have ended up on the streets, roaming around in the rain," says Myiny Myint, who also is a volunteer teacher at World Vision-initiated non-formal education classes.
Ni Ni likes to play jigsaw games most. "It's so much fun, it makes me very excited!" says the girl. She also loves to recites poems with her new friends.
The centers provide recreational and educational activities including group games, discussions, poems and songs. Topics included hygiene awareness, child rights (the Convention on the Rights of the Child is taught through a cartoon booklet developed in conjunction with UNICEF) and physical safety. High nutrition snacks are provided to the children.
On top of this, the center aims to make family visits for children identified as particularly vulnerable, encouraging the children's participation in creative and cathartic activities, while maximising parents and community's participation in CFS.
"It would be great if places like these remained forever," says Ni Ni, who probably faces difficulties to go to school when it opens in June. World Vision will encourage and promote children to go back to school when the school term begins; the hope for CFS activities is that they can transform to community-based child protection activities such as a children's club when the initial relief phase ends.
Two weeks after the disaster hit Yangon and the Ayeyerwarddy Delta, the government has announced that more than 70,000 are dead and over 50,000 people missing. Unofficial estimates range much higher, easily up to 200,000. More than 2.5 million people are still in dire situation after the storm, which produced a tidal surge of more than 15 feet that washed away thousands of villages across the low-lying delta area.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
An injured child stands on the ruins of her collapsed house in earthquake-hit Shifang, Sichuan province May 22, 2008. More than 80,000 people are dead or missing from China's worst earthquake ...
