Smiles are back on their faces, at last

The children at SOS Village near Bhubaneswar. BHUBANESWAR: Smile from the faces of nine-year-old Geeta Majhi her schoolmate Hasik Sahu and their friend Debaraj never fades away. But all these children studying in Class 3 at Raj Bhawan Upper Primary School have one thing in common. All these children, once belonging to remote villages under Kashipur block of Rayagada district had lost their parents. As many as eight girls and boys all below the age of nine had lost their parents when fatal cholera killed over 150 persons in three southern districts last year. They were found wandering by city-based SOS Children’s Village. Six months down the line, they can now visualise a new whole world. “I want to become Mahendra Singh Dhoni,” quips Debaraj, who had neither watched television before nor had ever gone to a school. The... [read full story]