Children of Tsunami March 2005 - Heshani

The Asian Tsunami 2004 left a trail of destruction in South Asia and Southeast Asia. Picking up from where the news media left off, Children of Tsunami tracks the recovery of eight affected families in the four hardest hit countries. TVE Asia Pacific's locally based TV journalist teams will be revisiting them once every month, until December 2005. This is a compilation of the March stories. We see the families forced to adapt to their radically changed lifestyles. Mala's father is bedridden, and her mother has to support the family as best she can. Selvam's father is still indifferent to the plight of his children, and wants to remarry, forcing his eldest son to turn breadwinner. Heshani's father remains jobless, and the family lives on government rations. Theeban is afraid to return to his tsunami-ravaged school, and instead apprentices at a motor garage. Beam's mother tries to bring up her two children by herself, while Bao leaves his job as he is overworked, and tries catching crabs. Some families are making progress: Putri is able to leave the refugee camp and go back to her old home, and Yenni can turn to her new-born cousin and try to forget the sorrow of her lost sisters.