Ernakulam District, Kerala

Ernakulam was one of the worst affected districts in the severe floods that Kerala was witness to in August 2018. Hundreds lost their lives in what is being described as the worst flooding in the State in nearly 100 years. Tens of thousands lost everything they owned in the floodwaters which entered homes leaving a trail of destruction everywhere. Livelihoods were destroyed and schools were forced to close till the waters receded.

Hope Unlimited reached out to the students of a 93-year-old girls school in north Paravur, Ernakulam district, one of the worst affected by the floods.  The government girls higher secondary school caters for students coming predominantly from socially and economically deprived backgrounds. Of the 154 girls studying in the school, 126 were affected, losing almost everything they had in the floods. 

Hope Unlimited distributed school bags, notebooks and pencil boxes to the 126 girls. Gowri Nandana is one of the girls.  

Gowri Nandana is 13 but her frail frame suggests the girl who is in Grade 8 is younger.  The girl lives with her mother, who works as a housekeeper in a mall in Ernakulam.  As the floodwaters started to rise in the middle of the night, Gowri and her mother had time just to stuff one set of clothes in her school bag and move to safe ground.  They stayed two weeks at a relief camp set up by the government before returning to see their home damaged and covered with slush and mud, a vivid reminder of the seven-foot high floodwaters.  Gowri’s mother had struggled to build the house, even selling her jewelry. While the memory of escaping the floodwaters troubles her, Gowri is also happy to return to a semblance of normalcy at school with her friends.  The girl wants to become a police officer when she finishes school.

(August 2018)