Myanmar & Thailand Earthquake: Protect Girls Now

“My name is Nan*. I am about to turn 23. There are five of us in the family. There is my father, my mother and my two elder sisters.

I was at work on the day of the earthquake. I was at a bank. When the strong tremor hit, I had to escape through the gate. Everyone from the bank escaped. Some people were left behind, of course - especially those upstairs. I escaped immediately during the first tremor.

During the second tremor, since the office is in a high-rise building, people were already on the street. By the time I got back to the office, everyone was already on the street. Thankfully, I wasn’t injured.

After the earthquake, phone services were down. There was no internet either. My family tried to call me several times. But they couldn’t get through. I was worried, so I tried to call home. But I couldn’t get through. There wasn’t much damage to my house. Cupboards had fallen over. Some furniture fell and broke a few things underneath. Our motorbike was stolen that day.

I was quite scared when it happened. I had never experienced anything like it before. I didn’t expect an earthquake like that. We used to have short, mild earthquakes. As far as I know, none of the earthquakes that happened in Mandalay were that strong. Even the elders said that it was the strongest one they had experienced in their whole lives.

I was shocked when the earthquake struck. I cried because I was scared; I was all by myself. I wasn't with my family. Rather than crying out of fear, I decided to do whatever I could.

In the meantime, several more tremors happened. I heard that houses had collapsed and there had been casualties in my neighbourhood. I heard that some of my acquaintances had lost their lives. I feel sad about it.

But I shouldn't dwell on it too much. I will try again by myself as well. If I let myself get too drawn in, there would be no future for me. Rather than dwelling on this, I should overcome it and focus on the things I can do for my future.

I could only help the people around me. There wasn't much I could do to help. I could only offer encouragement and a positive attitude. When they were feeling upset, I would listen to them.

Most of my friends' homes were destroyed. So, they were upset. They told me what had happened to their houses and how upset they were. I listened to them and encouraged them to think about positive things instead of upsetting things. I did just that.

This is my first time volunteering. I only have experience of office work. I had never volunteered before. So, as I was free, I decided to participate. I then started working at this child-friendly space.

Due to the current situation, many people are feeling depressed. However, I noticed that some people were volunteering and providing a lot of help in earthquake-affected areas.

As a young person myself, I would like to volunteer, as most young people do. They want to help. If people cannot afford to help financially, there are still things they can do physically.

At the child-friendly space, I registered the children and their parents. Before we started, we made a list of the children's names. The next day, when we opened, we took a record of the children who came. We read poems to them. We played games with them.

Some of the younger children couldn’t join in with the older children's games. We separated them into under-9s and over-9s groups. The over-9s were in the older children's group and played games with them. The under-9s then play with playdough. They draw. They do colouring. They assemble construction toys.

We let the older children play mostly games that have to be played in groups. They play in groups so that they can get to know each other better. This way, if someone makes a mistake, they can get help from the others in the group. This is how we teach the older children to play together in groups.

The games are designed to calm younger children down. Some children are naturally calm. Others are more active. To calm the active ones, we let them play with toys they are interested in, such as construction toys.

We take it in turns. If I were working with younger children today, I would work with the older ones tomorrow. Some children are victims of the earthquake. In this neighbourhood, some children have been affected by fire as well; some have had their houses damaged and may be distressed. In this child-friendly space, the children are all different. Some children are taken care of by their parents, while others are not.

Most of the naughty children are those whose parents are unable to take care of them. We let those children set their own rules while they are here, such as what they can do and what the rules are. We told them to set the rules, as there are certain things they cannot do here, such as fighting. They set the rules themselves. Then, when they play games, they can play in teams. Most of the children have learnt to tolerate each other and work as a team.

While I am playing with the children or doing my volunteering work, I often had to raise my voice to be heard over all the noise. Sometimes, I lose my voice. However, the thought of teaching the children means that I am never too sick the next day. I am getting used to working here. Because I care about the children, I think they might not enjoy playing if I were to take a day off.”

*Name has been changed to protect identity