Tsunami's toll on children still being calculated

RATHGAMA, Sri Lanka - Laughter rings out as hundreds of children in uniform spill across the dirt schoolyard in southern Sri Lanka for the midday break. Yet, just a few miles up the road is a painful reminder of their desperate circumstances - their flattened homes.

On Indonesia's Sumatra island, which saw the worst damage in the tsunami disaster a month ago, aid workers are taking photographs of children found on their own, hoping that may help reunite at least some with relatives.

Around the Indian Ocean, countries hit hard by last month's tsunami are struggling with how best to care for the tens of thousands of children left without homes, without schools and - in thousands of tragic cases - without parents.

The tsunami's toll on the younger generation is staggering: They account for about a third of all deaths - a toll across 11 countries estimated at between 157,000 and 220,000.

Among children who survived, the new realities include shock, hunger, homelessness, fear and loneliness.

"Thousands and thousands of children have watched their homes destroyed, and lost one or more parents," said Geoffrey Keele, UNICEF spokesman. "These things will take a toll on the mental and physical well-being of a child."

Aid workers say orphans who have moved in with other relatives are adjusting but those forced to live with strangers in crowded refugee camps are showing signs of extreme stress - violent outbursts or numb silence.

Young children are confused by their parents' absence and are prone to crying and clinging, said Amanda Melville, a UNICEF child protection officer in the devastated Indonesian city of Banda Aceh.

"The older children understand death, but they may feel guilty they are alive and their parents are dead, or they may be angry that they have been left alone," she said.

UNICEF has set up nearly 900 temporary schools in tents across Sumatra's Aceh province and is working with Indonesia's government to provide classrooms for as many as 450,000 students by Feb. 1. The tsunami destroyed about 1,000 schools and killed 1,300 teachers in the province.

In Sri Lanka, where some 160 schools were damaged or destroyed, teachers at the Devapathiraja College secondary school have rushed to resume classes despite having lost most textbooks and supplies to the surging sea.

"We are not here to teach right now. We are here to listen and help the students," said vice principal W.N.R.P. Gnanawathie. "They can come to school and see their friends and feel safe."