Little Lamu’s sadness: our home is gone in earthquake

3-year-old Lamu lives with her family in a small village in Jiuzhaigou county of Sichuan Province, an area hardest hit by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake on 8 August, 2017. Lamu’s mom said that a couple of days ago Lamu still was a talkative girl but after the earthquake that night she rarely speaks.

 “That night when the earthquake occurred, Lamu has already gone to bed. The earthquake shaking was so powerful that I quickly picked her up and ran out, I even did not have time to put clothes on her”, said Lamu’s mom.

In order to take a better care of Lamu and her older brother, Lamu’s mom did not go out to take migrant jobs but stayed at home to take care of the two kids. The only income of the family is from Lamu’s dad, who is taking migrant work outside the village. To provide kids with a better life, Lamu’s parents built two new buildings this year with money borrowed from relatives and loans from the bank, preparing to open a small hotel.  Jiuzhaigou is a popular tourist attraction with flocked tourists and the major income sources of local residents are running hotels or working in the scenic area. In order to express the love for their daughter, they deliberately named the hotel with their daughter’s name―Lamu Inn. No one did expect that the inn just opened shortly before it was damaged in the earthquake. “All of our houses are cracked from the middle, they are no long suitable for living, our home is just gone, and we really did not expect this!” Whenever thinking of the high debt, Lamu’s mom is sleepless.

What makes her equally anxious is that her daughter, little Lamu, becomes a different person after the earthquake. “She was so talkative previously, but rarely speaks these days, she always sat there alone and I guess she is badly frightened. That night when I held her and ran out, she cried and asked me what happened, I told her it is an earthquake, then she asked what is an earthquake and I told her our home is gone……”, Lamu’s mom burst into tears when she stopped here. After several days of living in tent, little Lamu started to talk, likely because affected by mom’s sadness, she told everyone she met, “our home is gone in earthquake……”

Wearing clothes and shoes given by kind-hearted people, Lamu sits quietly in their family tent. Because of the hurry when they escaped, her mom didn’t have time to put clothes on her sleeping daughter, and the clothes of other family members were not taken out as well. Since there were no shoes, Lamu had to be barefoot in the first two days.

Lamu’s mom said, most of children in the village have moved to another safer temporary shelter, because where they stayed now is closer to the collapsed mountain and there may be danger at any time. “However, we are so reluctant to go, our house is here and we are always worried about it. Lamu’s dad went to see our house again today.” When the aftershock was not very frequent, Lamu’s mom or dad will go to the place nearby their damaged house to have a look. That 4-storey building should be full of hope originally, but now it has lost its vitality.

Lamu is just a kid after all, when she opened the child friendly kit received from World Vision staff and saw many lovely toys, the girl who has kept silent these days was so thrilled and jumped with laughter and excitement. “Ah, little bears, ah, stickers!” At this moment, little Lamu seems to forget the fear and sadness in these days.  Looking at the smilling face of her daughter, Lamu’s mom is finally relieved.

After the earthquake, the once talkative and smiling Lamu becomes silent. 

World Vision staff presents a child friendly kit to little Lamu.

Lamu is sharing the toys in child friendly kit with her older brother.

Although doesn’t know how to play this toy, Lamu still loves it so much and doesn’t want to put it down.

Clutching the toy in her hand, Lamu had a new “little friend”.

World Vision staff conducting assessment in an interview with Lamu’s mom.