Eight-year-old Zoyal Ghale was at school in Nepal’s Rasuwa district when a devastating torrent of water, mud and debris tore through the area. With the flood sweeping through his surroundings, the young boy ran towards a forest with a friend and climbed trees to escape the rising waters. He survived. But for his mother, the ordeal would continue for days. According to a Reuters report published on August 28, Zoyal was reunited with his mother, Matti Maya Tamang, after she had spent days searching for him and his younger brother and had begun to fear that both boys were dead. Reuters journalists later helped connect the family after encountering Zoyal at a hospital. Scroll down to read more…
He ran into the forest as the flood hit
Zoyal and his younger brother had gone to school on Wednesday morning when the disaster struck Rasuwa, a mountainous district in northern Nepal bordering Tibet. As the flood surged through the area, Zoyal fled towards a forest with a friend. He climbed trees to stay above the water and debris.The escape came at a heavy cost. Zoyal suffered a broken leg and cuts to his face. He was eventually found by police and taken for medical treatment in neighbouring Nuwakot. On August 27, he was airlifted to Kathmandu for further treatment. When Reuters journalists encountered him in hospital, he was alone. The eight-year-old was carrying two 10-rupee notes that police had given him to persuade him to accompany them for treatment, Reuters reported.
His mother thought both her children were dead
While Zoyal was being treated, his mother, 28-year-old Matti Maya Tamang, had no idea where her children were. She went from one shelter and collection point to another, searching for the names of her two sons. But she could not find them.The situation was made even more devastating by the destruction around her. Their school had been destroyed, and the landscape was so badly altered by the flood that familiar landmarks had disappeared. Tamang told Reuters that after repeatedly failing to find her children’s names, she had begun to accept that both boys were dead. She continued searching anyway.
A Reuters journalist helped reunite them
The breakthrough came after Reuters journalists found Zoyal in hospital. Information from the journalists helped Tamang locate her son, who had been airlifted from Rasuwa without his family. The reunion took place in a Kathmandu hospital on August 28.Reuters images show Tamang speaking with Zoyal at his hospital bed, where his injured leg was bandaged. She had travelled to Kathmandu with his younger brother, Jenish. When mother and son finally saw each other, Zoyal hugged her and cried. For Tamang, it was the moment that transformed days of fear and grief into relief. Her younger son had also survived.
Thousands of children have been affected
Zoyal’s story comes amid a much wider humanitarian crisis following the floods and mudslides in northern Nepal. UNICEF said at least 17,000 children had been affected across Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading districts and was working with Nepal’s government to identify and reunite children who had become separated from their families.The disaster itself was triggered by a massive glacier and rock collapse in the Himalayas, according to preliminary scientific assessments. The collapse sent enormous quantities of ice, rock, mud and water into river systems, producing a catastrophic surge downstream. Scientists are still examining the precise chain of events that led to the disaster.The scale of the devastation has been immense. By August 30, Reuters reported that around 750 people had been killed and more than 3,000 were missing, with rescue teams still recovering victims and searching for survivors. Amid those grim numbers, the reunion of one mother and her two sons offered a rare moment of hope.For days, Tamang had searched for her children believing she might never see them again. Instead, on August 28, she found Zoyal alive in a Kathmandu hospital, injured, frightened and recovering, but there. And, most importantly, both her sons were back with her.
