Peace Building News

Healing the Self: An Experience of Post-Earthquake in Nepal

By Meenakshi Dahal When I reached the shelter after a week, Rabin (name changed), age 5, came running towards me asking why I was not there for about a week. I asked smiling, whether he missed me. He slowly replied, “yes, I was waiting for you every day. We had nothing to do.” And I asked why? He didn’t answer, just looked down at the floor. I just opened my bag as before and took out the colors and papers. He picked some of the colors and started sketching. From the corner, a lady told me this boy is not good. And I asked what happened? She said he was stealing things from the shop. I looked at the boy’s face, he was working at his own pace, as if he didn’t listen to us. “It was mid-day of Saturday, 25th April 2015. Things started to shake and it took a few minutes to comprehend that it was an earthquake. I was with my friends in the open ground. We didn’t understand what was happening. What could we do? We were starring each other’s face with fear. We started listening to people’s screaming and the sound of buildings and compound walls collapsing. At...