Helping children combat trauma in Manipur relief camps 

Nupimacha was diagnosed with cancer just two months before a blaze destroyed her home in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district on May 3, during the breakout of ethnic violence in the State. At a relief camp in Imphal three days later, the 15-year-old began wondering if she would live long enough to see her five-member family back in their native village of Dairy.

Nupimacha was diagnosed with cancer just two months before a blaze destroyed her home in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district on May 3, during the breakout of ethnic violence in the State. At a relief camp in Imphal three days later, the 15-year-old began wondering if she would live long enough to see her five-member family back in their native village of Dairy.

Almost three months later, the yearning to return home is stronger, but she has learnt to acknowledge that there is no point worrying too much about things not in her control.

Also read | Total breakdown of law and order in Manipur: INDIA team

“I have to focus on my present to snatch some certainty out of what seems to be an uncertain future,” she says at the Lamboikhongangkhong Trade Centre, now one of the largest relief camps for the victims of the ongoing ethnic conflict that has claimed more than 130 lives and displaced at least 50,000 people.

Among the displaced are an estimated 10,000 children and adolescents distributed in 350 relief camps. But Nupimacha is one of about 1,100 minors across 37 of these camps who have found some support from a “stress-busting” programme designed by a global education support organisation.

“The idea behind the programme was to help children traumatised by the violence smile again apart from bridging their learning gap,” Amrita Thingujam, the managing director of STAR (System Transformation and Rejuvenation) Education said.

Explained | What is behind Manipur’s widespread unrest?