Earthquake Hostels

In January 2001, the Kutch district of Gujarat was devastated by a massive earthquake. Now four years later, a new educational hostel is opening for girls from some of the worst affected areas.

The new girls’ hostel in Adhipur is a large well designed building looking out over a flat expanse of semi-desert and scrubland. It was opened in January 2005 almost exactly four years after a massive earthquake tore the area apart.

The hostel provides a home for eighty girls between the ages of six and eighteen. All come from the poorest “dalit” communities; from villages where the lack of amenities would have made it impossible for them to complete their basic schooling.

I visited the area three years ago, and then again this year. This time I am amazed at the changes I see around me. Whole towns that three years ago were little more than heaps of rubble, have now been completely rebuilt. The people too have moved on. They still talk about the earthquake. But now they often joke about it -the humour helping to place a safe distance between themselves and the horror of what they have lived through.

The hostel is an international effort -built with funding from Karuna in the UK and from well-wishers in Taiwan and Switzerland. It offers the girls a chance to complete their education giving them access to better job prospects. More importantly however, it provides a safe, supportive environment that will enable them to grow in confidence and flourish.

We interview several of the girls, asking them about their lives and what the hostel has meant for them. Laxmi is a seventeen year old, whose home was destroyed in the earthquake; at first she talks like a confident, determined young woman; but when she stops there is a deep sadness and vulnerability in her eyes.

She tells us that she has never seen her father. Her mother ran away because he used to beat her up. When she ran away, the rest of her family disowned her. So she moved to another village and remarried. But the same thing happened again. Her new husband started to beat her, so she ran away again. This time it was too much. When Laxmi was only four years old, her mother committed suicide by setting herself on fire.

At that point Laxmi’s grandmother took her in and brought her up as her own daughter even though it meant that the rest of the family disowned her too. Since that time she has had to work as a labourer to support the two of them.

Laxmi came to the hostel four years ago, just after the earthquake. At that time it was just a collection of temporary shelters made of metal sheeting. As she tells her story her voice starts to tremble with emotion.

“I think about my parents nearly all the time. It is very hard. When the other children get sick their parents come to look after them; but when I’m sick no-one comes. Sometimes I think- how could they leave me like this? Why didn’t they kill me too rather than leaving me to go through all this on my own.” As she speaks she knots her fingers together; then the tears well up and we are silent for a while as she gathers her thoughts together.

When she starts talking about her life in the hostel, her mood starts to brighten. “When I came here Anand, the hostel warden, promised I could stay here until I was old enough to go to college. Ever since then he has given me so much respect and love- he has been like a father to me. Whenever there is something in my heart I feel I can go to him and share it.”

After finishing her education she plans to go back home to support her elderly grandmother. “She has sacrificed so much for me. She has told me she cares about me more than her own life.”

“I pray that when I’m older I’ll take care of my own children. I don’t care if I’m poor and have to live in a hut or whatever- no-one should have to experience what I have gone through.”

Later I find myself thinking about Laxmi, wondering what the future might hold for her. I can only hope she continues to find the support she needs to carry her through into a happy, stable adult life.

And I think of all the people who have given money to fund this project - how their trust and generosity is having such an incredible effect on the lives of so many children.

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