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persuaded the women to start working in the food-for work programme
started by an NGO, and for the children he organised sports events. He
himself loved to play cricket, and so he organised cricket matches for
children. Prashant engaged, with other volunteers, in helping the widows
and children to pick up the broken pieces of their lives. The initial
government plan was to set up institutions for orphans and widows.
However, this step was successfully resisted, as it was felt that in such
institutions, children would grow up without love, and widows would
suffer from stigma and loneliness. Prashant’s group believed orphans
should be resettled in their own community itself, possibly in new foster
families made up of childless widows and children without adult care.

Stigma: disgrace
foster families: a family that provides custody or guardianship for

children whose parents are dead or unable to look after them

The sadness of the children and women in the shelter was growing with
each passing day. Prashant requested to work in the NGO called “Food
for work”. In order to keep the children busy, he organized sports events
for them. He took help of other volunteers to help the widows and
orphans to return to normal lives. The government had proposed to set
up separate institutions for widows and orphans but this proposal was
successfully rejected by Prashant. He felt that these separate institutions
would neither help the orphaned children nor would they be beneficial for
the widows. These volunteers wanted to settle the orphaned children
and widows in foster families where they would get love and security.

It is six months after the devastation of the super cyclone. This time
Prashant’s wounded spirit has healed simply because he had no time to
bother about his own pain. His handsome, youthful face is what the
widows and orphaned children of his village seek out most in their
darkest hour of grief.

After six months of the disaster, Prashant has come out of the grief of
losing his mother because he was engrossed in helping others that he