As a devastating flood swept down from Nepal’s mountain rivers, wiping out settlement after settlement, little Joel Ghale ran and hid in the forest to save his life. He was only eight years old. He had been in school at the time. In the moment of disaster, he had the presence of mind to run to the mountain forest and climb a tree. That is what saved him.
This happened last Wednesday. After a glacier collapsed on the Nepal-Tibet border, a powerful surge of mud, water and rock came rushing down the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers. So far, 623 bodies have been recovered. The number of people missing in the country has risen to 1,924. Of them, at least 540 are foreign nationals.
The next day, Thursday, Joel was rescued from Nepal’s disaster-hit northern district of Rasuwa. The child had a broken leg and cuts on his face. He was later taken by helicopter to a hospital in the capital, Kathmandu, where he remains under treatment.
His mother, Matti Maya Tamang, 28, whose children had gone missing, had thought her two sons, who were at school when the flash flood struck, might no longer be alive. She rushed from one shelter to another. She checked at relief and rescue centers too. But found nothing. Finally, after three days, yesterday, Friday, the mother found one of her sons, Joel.
Matti Maya Tamang told Reuters: “I went to four different places, one after another. My children’s names weren’t on any list anywhere. I had assumed neither of my two sons was alive anymore. There was nothing I could do but cry. I couldn’t control myself at all.”
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said at least 17,000 children have been affected by the flash floods in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading districts north of the capital, Kathmandu. The organization is working to identify and register children separated from their families. In coordination with the Nepal government, efforts are under way to reunite these children with their families.
A journalist helps find a missing child
Matti Maya Tamang was frantically searching for her two sons on Thursday. At one point, she got the phone number of Reuters journalist Sahana Vajracharya. Hoping for information, Matti Maya called her.
A few hours earlier, the journalist had met little Joel at a hospital in Nuwakot. On hearing that a rescued child had been brought to the hospital, Sahana and a Reuters team had rushed there. Hospital authorities didn’t know where the child’s family was, or even whether anyone in his family was still alive.
By then, preparations were under way to fly Joel to Kathmandu by helicopter for advanced treatment. He was due to be airlifted shortly. It was then that Sahana spoke with Joel. Hoping to help find his family, she told him she wanted to make a video with him. Joel agreed.
Sahana left her phone number with hospital authorities, hoping someone searching for Joel would eventually call. That is exactly what happened. Within a few hours, Matti Maya Tamang called Sahana looking for her son.
When Sahana told her over the phone that Joel was alive and had been taken to a hospital in Kathmandu for treatment, Matti Maya Tamang could hardly believe it. She said: “When she [Sahana] said she knew where Joel was, it didn’t feel real. I had assumed I would never find my son again.”
Matti Maya Tamang had already found her younger son alive before that. She said: “When I finally found my older son too, it felt like I had gotten my life back.”
The school has been wiped out
On Wednesday morning, her two sons had gone to school by car as on any other day. Matti Maya Tamang was at home, weaving on a loom. Suddenly she heard a sound like an earthquake.
Matti Maya Tamang said: “I could see everything being swept away. I kept thinking my sons must have been swept away too.” She tried to make her way toward the boys’ school. Normally, the trip from home to school takes about 15-20 minutes. But by then, the whole area looked completely different. The school building itself had been wiped out.
Matti Maya Tamang said there was no way to tell where the school had been, or where the market had been. All around was nothing but water, rock and mud.
The boy with 20 rupees in his hand
It was 11 a.m. Thursday. Joel was at the 15-bed Chakradev Hospital in Nuwakot. That is where Sahana found him. But no one knew where the child’s family members were.
Joel’s right leg was broken. His face bore scratches and injury marks. He was still clutching two 10-rupee notes tightly in his left hand.
Officials said the police officers who had rescued the child had given him the rupees, to persuade him to agree to go to the hospital.
Sahana gently tried to talk with Joel. At one point, Joel said that he had been at school when the flood hit. Suddenly everything around him went completely dark.
The boy said he ran from the school with a friend toward the mountain forest. To escape the floodwater, he climbed a tree. Sahana then asked him if he had been scared. Joel shook his head and said, “No.”
Mother and son reunited
Joel’s family members rushed to the Kathmandu hospital yesterday. Little Joel had been taken there the day before for treatment.
Buses have not been running since the disaster. Sahana arranged a vehicle for Joel’s family members. Riding in it, they reached the capital after a two-hour journey from home. Matti Maya Tamang came and stood quietly beside her son’s bed.
Joel’s father works as a construction laborer in Japan. He, too, has set out to be with his son.
Wednesday’s disaster has completely changed the lives of the people of Rasuwa. Even amid this crisis, Matti Maya Tamang is happy to have her son back. Speaking to Reuters with joy, she said: “He’s always been extremely mischievous. This isn’t the first time in his life he’s broken a bone.”