Kashmir floods: Social worker chooses special children over personal safety

Caught in the devastating floods in Srinagar, a social worker refuses to leave his autistic students behind and swim to safety.

30-year-old George Johnson, project coordinator at Life Help Center (LHC), a school for children with special needs run by an NGO in Natipora area of Srinagar is waging his own battle with a bunch of nine children affected with autism, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Down syndrome.

"I refused to leave this place without my students when the local volunteers came for rescue operations. It is difficult to evacuate these children via boats as the flood water can cause panic among them.

"Keeping them in rescue shelters is also not feasible as the people there would not know how to deal with them. I choose to be with these children in their hour of need," Johnson told PTI over telephone.

He said the parents of the children have been informed about the situation but they are stuck in various parts of the state.

"We informed the parents about the whereabouts of the children. But most of them are caught up in the floods. An elder brother of one of the boys visited us but could not take the boy along as all the roads are flooded. He instead clicked a photograph of his brother to show it to his parents," Johnson says.

Water entered the ground floor of the three-storey building where the children are housed. Recalling the experience, Johnson says his biggest fear was that the building would collapse.

"I was scared that the building might fall. The flood waters reached our doorsteps on the 7th. We had 3-4 feet water on the ground floor. Though we have tried to restore the garden, the backyard of the school is still flooded. We are getting only 2 hours of water supply," he said.

Johnson said the children are coping well with the situation, though they know that things are not normal.

"Such children are free birds. They are not affected by the irregularities of a normal life. They somehow enjoy the chaos, though they are aware that something is wrong. I and my colleagues try not to give them any negative signal, however bad the situation is," says the coordinator.