fahinoor´s sad destiny and dashed dreams about the future hit us straight in the heart after we arrived at lebu bagan thursday noon. 14 year old fahinoor was silently sitting in the hill side, above a totally ravaged area where 10 -12 families had lived. 50 men were searching in the deep mud and rubble for her mother, nur jahan, the only missing body. she was just staring empty in front of her, not willing to accept that her mother, little brother and baby sister was taken away from her. she was left with her father, now badly injured but still participating in the search for his wife, and her 11 year old brother.

fahinoor was working in a garments factory, but how would she be able to concentrate on her work now? her mother was buried somewhere under the rubble in front of her, and though she knew she would be devastated seeing her dead mother, she needed to know that they would find her.

lebu bagan is probably the worst affected area of the chittagong landslide and the army had established a camp there to organise the relief work. they told us that 40 people had died, whereof 39 bodies had been found. in the para besides, also in lebu bagan, probably another 35 people had died.

one month ago, fahinoor was so proud of their new home, as their father had managed to purchase a small pice of land and a house in lebu bagan. such a beautiful place under the green hills of chittagong. here she felt safe, and she knew that her younger siblings would be happy here playing around with the other kids. how could she know what gruesome destiny was waiting for her ahead?

now, the only thing left of their house was one of the clay corners and sharp edges of tin and bamboo stick out of the mud.

word are difficult to find when talking to fahinoor where she is sitting. several photo journalists came and took pictures of her after they saw that we sat down to talk with her. they took her details, stuck a lens up in her face, asked about how many family members she lost, and then they left as quick as they came. we felt bad, knowing that taking her pictures would expose her in all her naked sorrows and helplessness. but we sat with her for a good while, in silence, trying to comfort her as her new friends, sincerely feeling her pain. we said goodbye holding back our tears, but promised to come back the day after. which we did, so will we come back to see her later.

the next day we came back and got confirmed that they found her mother, by chance. the army people had given up around 3pm, they had so many other bodies to search for elsewhere. as the villagers were left alone knowing that the body of nur jahan was still somewhere under the ground they walked on, they had started to clean up the site. a few meters away from where the search had been on, they thought they saw some blood on the ground. when they started digging, the now familiar smell of death was there and soon they saw a toe in the sand. the body was excavated and without seeing or knowing fahinoors reaction, we could only feel some peace that she would be able to bury her mother with some respect.

if you want to help fahinoor, stay with us and follow up what our contributing chittagong bloggers and readers, jewel, sami and others, are able to do. we hope to help her as we help humayun, taking care of their needs for the next three months, and including them in our extended family. be there with us and help fahinoor rebuild her hopes and dreams for the future, though for her still hidden in the total darkness.