In
September of 1999, the eastern part of North Carolina was devastated by flood
waters from Hurricane Floyd. I was spared in the area that I live, but many
families lost everything including my sister and her 3 children. Her home was
under water and everything was destroyed. The sadness for my sister, nephews
and niece being uprooted from their home was extremely stressful to our family.
The feeling of loss and helplessness was indescribable. Everyone was affected;
for days we had no electrical power, which made it difficult to use phone or
hear news coverage. There were a lot of
emotional support from the family and communal support such as food, and clothing
donations from local church groups, Salvation Army, DSS, and Red Cross. After a week the National Guard permitted
resident to return home and when we walked into the house, my sister became physically
ill to see nothing that could be salvaged. She cried for days and became
depressed about her children not having a home or their belongings. A lot of
effort went into making sure that the children followed their routines as much
as possible. She eventually came to live
with us for a year and she eventually got on her feet and is doing well.
The
region I chose is Vietnam because 3 years ago a 4 year old Vietnamese little
girl was in our classroom. She lives here with her parents and paternal
grandmother. The grandmother shared many stories of her difficulty as a child
without adequate food and basic necessities and how she came to America
illegally to obtain a better life. She
often voiced concern for the children in Vietnam. She admitted the situation is
slowly getting better for some children that she sees when she returned home
every 7 years.
http://www.unicef.org/vietnam/children.html
