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Three-month-old baby survives Cyclone Nargis |  | | |
| May 14, 2008 |
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 Baby Nilar survived Cyclone Nargis but has lost all of her family except for her grandmother /WORLD VISION
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Nearly 2000 people lived in the village of Shawchaung, but only about half that many survived Cyclone Nargis. Among the survivors is a three-month-old baby girl who is now an orphan.
Little Nilar was the youngest of her family of five, but she was the only one who survived Cyclone Nargis. She came into the world just three months ago, and doesn't yet realise how her life was changed forever on May 2, 2008. Some day, her grandmother, Daw Pauksee, 70, will tell her how her family members and at least 60,000 people were killed by a powerful cyclone.
Nilar’s family lived in the small coastal village of Shawchaung, in Laputta township, not far from the sea. They were a typical family who made their living as paddy farmers.
On the evening of May 2, the wind became more ferocious and the water began to move inland. Daw Pauksee picked up Nilar and headed to one of the bigger houses in the village.
"It was so messy with the wind and rain. I grabbed the little girl, and her mother followed me. There were other villagers (mostly women) around us. At one point, a big tide took away the girl's mother. Instinctively, I tried to rescue her without knowing letting down the baby," she says. "A woman beside me shouted, ‘Baby, baby!’ and told me to hold on tightly to the baby but let the mother go. I don’t know why such bad things happen to us. I am so exhausted."
Nilar had stopped breathing when she reached the safe house. So her grandmother used first aid to recue her.
''She threw up two times, and then the little girl come back to me, " says Daw Pauksee, with a weak smile. Nilar sustained some cuts on her chin and throat. After the storm passed, Nilar's parents and two elder brothers' bodies were found. Nilar has nothing left, not even clothes to cover her tiny body.
"She’s been wrapped up into my Longyi (a traditional skirt, similar to a sarong) until we reached this camp," says Daw Pauksee. The little girl and her grandmother rode in a boat to reach the district town of Myaung Mya because her village was no longer inhabitable. Dead bodies were everywhere, and Daw Pauksee says there was not enough manpower left to bury the rest of the bodies.
"Dead bodies were laid on the ground in the cemetery for a day or two after they had been collected. You could hear women and children crying for help at night," she says.
As Nilar and Daw Pauksee traveled to the relief camp, they ran out of food and got so weak, the baby nearly died. Finally, at a rest stop, Daw Pauksee went onto the bank of the river and begged for a bottle of milk.
"I don't remember where it is and how I got it but it saved her life again," she says.
Many people who came to the camp asked Daw Pauksee if they could adopt Nilar.
"My relatives urged me to give her up, but I can’t do that. She's my hope of living in this world".
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