Dateline ACT

Iran 05/04

Orphans in Bam haunted by memories

By Rainer Lang, EPD/ACT International

Bam, Iran, August 30, 2004--The look in the eyes of the two children tells a story of fear. Ten-year-old Sahar and her 7-year-old brother, Sajad, are orphans. Their parents were two of the approximately 40,000 people who died in the earthquake in the Iranian city of Bam on December 26, 2003.

The children came with their uncle to a gathering of about 200 orphans and their relatives in the United Nations compound in Bam where information was to be given about the future of orphans, including the possibilities for adoption. The U.N. estimates that the earthquake claimed the lives of one or both parents of approximately 7,500 children. Diakonie Emergency Aid (DEA), a member of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, a global alliance of churches and related agencies, is building an orphanage in Bam where children like Sahar and Sajad can find a new home.

After some hesitation, Sahar and Sajad agreed to talk about what they experienced in the earthquake. They sat closely together on a chair. It seemed as if they needed this closeness. Sahar spoke first about how she was visiting her grandparents at that time, because she wanted to be with her cousin who was living there. When she spoke about how she had insisted on the visit, she started to cry. At the sight of his sister crying, Sajad could not hold his tears back.

Still sobbing, Sahar continued. Because Sajad had not wanted to stay at home alone with his parents, he had pushed the whole evening to join his sister at their grandparents’ place. Late that evening, their father brought him there. When they returned to their house the next morning, they found only the rubble that had also buried their parents underneath, while nothing had happened to them at their grandparents’ house.

Sahar stopped talking. She could not continue - her memories were unbearable. Nobody has helped her cope with them. Sahar’s last memories of her father are when he picked her up at school to bring her to their grandparents’ home.

The children’s uncle, Moud Qasim, who has been taking care of them, told how difficult it has been for them to live with the memories. He said each time they went to their old house, they would dig with their hands in the sand, trying to find something. One can still see the desperation and shock from what happened in the eyes of the children. Only once, for a brief moment, did the grief leave Sahar’s eyes when she said she would like to become a teacher.

Most of the children who share the fate of Sahar and Sajad are being cared for by relatives – grandparents or aunts and uncles. But it became clear during the meeting that Sahar and Sajad’s uncle cannot bear the burden any longer because he himself lost everything in the earthquake. Qasim presented the papers given to him by the authorities that prove the children are orphans. Like many others, he is looking for a place where the two children can live. But all the orphanages in Bam were destroyed in the quake, and new ones have to be built. The government has given priority to such projects, but reconstruction in Bam is slow. So the uncle continues to wait for help.

The orphanage DEA is building will house 25 children up to 12 years old. DEA, along with ACT member HEKS, the aid agency of the Protestant churches in Switzerland, is helping other quake survivors who also have housing needs. Families in four of the 22 villages around Bam that were completely destroyed are being assisted with the construction of new, earthquake-proof houses. By June of this year, the foundations of approximately 50 houses were finished, with a total of 213 houses expected.

Two other ACT members, ACT Netherlands and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, are providing psychological assistance to address the other type of help the survivors like Sahar and Sajad need, but the needs are overwhelming. However, those who can offer assistance are there to help in whatever small ways they can.

In addition to DEA and HEKS, the other ACT members that are working in Bam under ACT appeal MEIN42 - Bam Earthquake Relief & Rehabilitation - are: Middle East Council of Churches, Hungarian Baptist Aid, Norwegian Church Aid, ACT Netherlands and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.