Email 
Print 
Intense rains and a cold front during
the last days of October and first days
of November flooded the rivers that ran
across the State of Tabasco and its
capital city, Villahermosa.
REF:
With a total population of 2 million
people in the Tabasco State today,
authorities estimate that 800,000 people
were evacuated, 30% of whom are children
under the age of 14.
REF:
Time passes slowly for people and
especially for children living in
shelters.
REF:
From 194 shelters that are working in
the State of Tabasco, 113 are schools.
This number continues to increase, as
local families open their own homes to
offer a safe place to neighbors.
REF:
“It was a nightmare”, said Mrs. Castillo
(71) who is the grandmother of 6
children living in a shelter opened in
an elementary school in Puerta Brava, a
neighborhood in Villahermosa, Tabasco.
REF:
Giovani Castillo, (6) is involved in a
kinder garden activity with other
children at the shelter. Children have
been very stressed by these events. But
here, Giovani seems absorbed in the
games run at the shelter.
REF:
This is the first day that teachers from
this elementary school went back to
their work to help children who are
living at the school. “Why are we here?”,
asked Miss Aida González to her pre
school class after they sang some songs
and played a few games. “Because my home
is filled with water”, answered one of
her students.
REF:
In the fourth grade group, children are
practicing grammar, writing letters and
storytelling. The children wrote: “I
want this to be over, for our houses to
be fine; that the rivers don’t leave
their own places. That there won’t be
more accidents and that nothing (bad)
will happen to small children so they
can be happy”.
REF:
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
