Photographer’s View of Young Nepal Quake Victims’ Friendship

Photos by Niranjan Shrestha

Associated Press photographer Niranjan Shrestha chronicled the lives of two young Nepal earthquake victims for several months after the April 25, 2015, disaster.

Below, he shares his experiences:

The sounds in the trauma ward of Bir Hospital two months after the Nepal earthquake were hard to take: The screams of patients suffering with fractured bones, or mourning for amputated limbs, as helpless family members attempted to comfort them. I couldn’t bring myself to take out my camera and point it at people here, so instead I tried to comfort them, too, and listen to their stories.

I was drawn to a corner of the ward where a young girl missing a leg was smiling while doing physiotherapy. She was the only patient with a smile. That was the first time since the earthquake I felt such deep contentment.

Nirmala Pariyar, now just 8 years old, lost her right leg. A few days after my visit, I returned to see Nirmala and her family. “Uncle, you’re back again,” she said, flashing me that smile.

I followed Nirmala and her family over several months. One day, I saw another 8-year-old girl, Khendo Tamang, lying in the bed next to Nirmala. She was crying and holding her mother, whose faced showed her anxiety. Khendo had lost not only her left leg, but her elder sister and grandmother.

The parents of both girls decided to keep them together. Seeing Khendo helped Nirmala realize she was not alone. But Khendo needed more convincing. Nirmala tried her best to plant a seed of hope in her, cracking jokes, or making weird faces to elicit a smile. Slowly, it worked. Every time I went, I saw small changes in Khendo. Slowly she, too, started to smile. The girls started to call each other “Sathi,” which means friend in Nepali. They never called each other by their names.

They were like neglected flowers that finally were tended and slowly bloomed. They were two bodies, each missing a leg, but leaning on one another for support. When they separated for the first time from the hospital, they were both happy to go home to their relatives, but Khendo started to cry. It was a bittersweet moment for both girls, though they would continue to see each other, since both still needed to get prosthetic legs.

After many months in the hospital and rehabilitation, the day arrived to get measured for the prostheses. While the doctors prepared their tools, the 8-year-olds joked and played.

They took their first wobbly steps as their parents watched their daughters finally back on two feet. The physiotherapy would continue, as their amputated limbs were not yet strong enough to hold the new legs. But they were on their way.

“I don’t think my daughter will lose hope,” said Chitra Bahadur Nepali, Nirmala’s father. “She is a really strong kid.”

There has been so little rebuilding in the year since the earthquake; so few success stories. But these two girls showed me how strong people can be. How two downtrodden souls can find support in one another. How one small angel can help her friend stand and see the beauty of survival.

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In this July 15, 2015 photo, Nepalese amputee victims Khendo Tamang, left, and Nirmala Pariyar, both 8, share a single pair of shoes at the Bir Trauma Center in Kathmandu, Nepal. After suffering serious leg wounds in Nepal’s massive 2015 earthquake that killed and injured thousands, both girls were brought to the Bir Trauma Center in Kathmandu, to receive single leg amputations. Following their surgeries, Nirmala’s relentless cheerfulness drew a still very depressed Khendo close and both found an inseparable friendship which has helped their emotional wounds heal. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this July 24, 2015 photo, Nepalese girl Nirmala Pariyar, 8, draws pictures of herself and her friend Khendo Tamang, also 8, at the Bir Trauma Center in Kathmandu, Nepal. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this July 24, 2015 photo, Khendo Tamang, 8, in yellow, stands by the bedside of her best friend Nirmala Pariyar, also 8, as she cries in pain during treatment on her amputated right leg in the Bir Trauma Center in Kathmandu, Nepal. Losing a leg each in the massive Nepal earthquake in 2015, they were both taken to Bir Hospital and Kathmandu’s main trauma ward where they spent the next three months with surgeries and physical therapy with their new prostheses. During this time the girls’ friendship grew and have become inseparable. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this Aug. 19, 2015 photo, Nepalese girl Nirmala Pariyar, 8, who lost one leg in Nepal’s massive April 2015 earthquake, is carried by her brother on a walkway in Kathmandu, Nepal. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this July 6, 2015 photo, Nepal earthquake survivor Nirmala Pariyar, 8, practices using her crutches to move around at the Bir Trauma Center in Kathmandu, Nepal. Nirmala lost one leg in Nepal’s massive April 25, 2015 earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people and left more than 22,000 injured. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this July 6, 2015, photo, Nepalese amputee victims and best of friends, Khendo Tamang, left, and Nirmala Pariyar, both 8, play on a mobile phone at the Bir Trauma Center in Kathmandu, Nepal. Each girl lost one leg in Nepal’s massive April 25, 2015 earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people and injured more than 22,000. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this Oct. 16, 2015 photo, amputee victims in Nepal’s massive 2015 earthquake, Nepalese girls Khendo Tamang, left, and Nirmala Pariyar, both 8, practice walking with new prosthetic legs at a clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal. Spending months together with surgeries and the following physical therapy, both girls were soon inseparable and relied on their friendship to help ease the emotional wounds. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this Sept. 8, 2015 photo, amputee victims in the Nepal’s 2015 earthquake, Nepalese girls Khendo Tamang, left, and Nirmala Pariyar, both 8, sit together as they are fitted for new prostheses at a clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this Sept. 8, 2015 photo, best of friends Khendo Tamang, left, and Nirmala Pariyar, both 8, wait to be measured for new prosthetic legs in Kathmandu, Nepal. The girls became close friends while in recovery after each one lost a leg in Nepal’s massive April 25, 2015 earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people and injured more than 22,000. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this Aug.19, 2015 photo, Nirmala Pariyar, 8, looks out a car window after her best friend Khendo, also 8, was dropped off at a relative’s house. Both girls had grown inseparable after each lost a leg in the massive 2015 Nepal earthquake and spent the following months in recovery together. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this Aug.19, 2015 photo, Mangale Dong Tamang carries his crying daughter Khendo, 8, after she was released from the amputee hospital, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Khendo, an amputee victim in the 2015 Nepal earthquake, was heartbroken after being separated from her closest friend Nirmala, who also lost a leg in the quake. Following their discharge from the hospital, the girls continue physical therapy in the same Kathmandu clinic, partly funded by the aid group Handicap International. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this April 20, 2016 photo, Nepalese earthquake amputee victim Khendo Tamang, 8, studies at her aunt’s shop in Kathmandu, Nepal. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this April 8, 2016 photo, Khendo Tamang, 8, stands near the debris of the collapsed home she was trapped in after the April 25, 2015 earthquake struck in Banskharka, Nepal. Khendo was in a packed house with her grandmother, sister and many other villagers discussing ways to alleviate their poverty. When the quake struck, the house collapsed, killing her grandmother and her sister and leaving Khendo with severe leg injuries. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this March 25, 2016 photo, Chitra Bahadur, foreground, and Maya Pariyar, both parents of Nepal’s 2015 earthquake amputee victim Nirmala Pariyar, 8, sit in a makeshift room in a small textile factory in Kathmandu, Nepal. While on a visit to her father Chitra in Kathmandu, Nirmala was at a neighbor’s home watching TV when the quake hit, causing the house to collapse around her. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this Aug. 19,2015, amputee victim Nirmala Pariyar, 8, looks out from the balcony of her brother’s apartment in Kathmandu, Nepal. Nirmala lives with her parents in a makeshift room of a small textile factory where her father works in Kathmandu. He left their farming village years ago to come to the capital to earn more money. While on a visit with her father in Kathmandu, Nirmala was in a neighbor’s apartment that collapsed when the quake struck. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this Aug.19, 2015 photo, Nirmala Pariyar, 8, plays with her nephew in Kathmandu, Nepal. Nirmala lost a leg in Nepal’s massive April 2015 earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people dead and injured more than 22,000. She was at a neighbor’s watching TV when the quake caused the apartment to collapse on them. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this March 28, 2016 photo, Maya Pariyar, 39, styles the hair of her daughter Nirmala, 8, at a textile factory in Kathmandu, Nepal. Nirmala, an amputee victim in Nepal’s massive 2015 earthquake, has not been in school for a year now, something that deeply worries her parents. The high costs of $1,300 per year for her to go to school in Kathmandu are just unimaginable for her parents. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this March 25, 2016 photo, Nepalese earthquake amputee victim Nirmala Pariyar, 8, helps her father at a textile factory in Kathmandu, Nepal. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this April 20, 2016 photo, Nepalese earthquake amputee victim Khendo Tamang, 8, attends a school class in Kathmandu, Nepal. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this April 20, 2016 photo, Nepalese earthquake amputee victim Khendo Tamang, 8, left, and other classmates sing a song at school in Kathmandu, Nepal. Khendo is now attending school in Kathmandu with the help of a man her family met following her severe leg injuries sustained in Nepal’s massive 2015 earthquake in her village. This surprise benefactor, a westerner studying Buddhism in Nepal – is paying all her fees, which come close to $1,300 a year. The family still does not know the man’s full name. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this Oct. 5, 2015 photo, Nepalese girl Nirmala Pariyar, 8, gets measured for a prosthetic leg at a clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal. Nirmala suffered severe leg wounds in the massive 2015 earthquake after the home she was in collapsed while visiting her father in Kathmandu. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this March 12, 2016 photo, Chitra Pariyar and his daughter Nirmala, 8, rest on a bench in Basantapur Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal. Nirmala lost a leg in Nepal’s massive April 2015 earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people dead and more than 22,000 injured. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this Oct. 16, 2015 photo, amputee victim in the massive 2015 Nepal earthquake, Khendo Tamang, 8, center, walks with the assistance of her mother Yagnsen and family friend Chitra Bahadur after receiving a new prosthesis at a clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this April 8, 2016 photo, a teddy bear and the image of Buddha are placed inside the makeshift shelter of Khendo Tamang’s grandfather in Banskharka, Nepal. Khendo, 8, lost a leg in Nepal’s massive 2015 earthquake. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this March 9, 2016 photo, Khendo Tamang, 8, adjusts her prosthetic leg in Kathmandu, Nepal. Khendo was in her home village, Banskharka, when Nepal’s massive April 2015 earthquake stuck. Her grandmother and sister were both killed when the house they were in collapsed during the quake. Khendo was pulled with severe leg injuries from the wreckage. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

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Text from the AP story, Photographer’s view of young Nepal quake victims’ friendship, by Niranjan Shrestha. 

 

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