What is your name?
As a 6 year old, I was wondering what should I reply because for all of us it was a number more than a name.
We rarely got called by our names. We were so many, and were addressed as always “hello” or hey!
As our facility centre served up to 250 children of the different age group.
Routine was set from 5 am, wake up call to .having breakfast, cleaning, setting our bunker or bed and going to school.
There was no one to wake up, us with a gentle kiss and warm hug, there was no one who could pamper us with candy, toys or food we liked. We were not treated as individuals there we had one common pain named….Orphan.
Always longing for attention or love, we wanted to go to sibling, Mom or Dad to share our feelings but we had no one with us. It is really difficult to explain the misery of not having closed knit family. Their words always echoed in my heart in dreams and the moments when I lost them in war still haunt my sleep. After few years, when I grew up, I had a perception that I have no future.
The war orphans are often neglected, therefore, World Day of War Orphans is observed every year to remember these children and reminds us responsibility towards them to work hard to ebb the shadow of war so that no one would be an orphan and suffer.
Numbers and data of causality and injured are given after every war. But can anyone give the measure of pain, struggle with physical or mental health. These children have undergone and seen negativity, adversity and things no child ever should, their homes burnt, their families killed and their innocence stolen forever. They don’t grow up with family and remain deprived of love and care and moreover throughout their life they face emotional, social, and physical challenges.
“There are many in the world dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love.”
-Mother Teresa