May 11th, 2015 | by Vandita
Ishwor
Ghimire, 19, heroically lead 55 orphans of Nepal Deprived Women and Children
Upliftment Center in Kathmandu to safety in the aftermath of the devastating
Nepal earthquake that killed more than 8,000 and triggered an avalanche on
Mount Everest.
“All
the kids were so panicked and started screaming and crying. I asked everybody
to get out from the building. The earth was still shaking but I was running
here and there to rescue all the kids and take them to the safety place,” he
told Mic.
He
first took the children, aged between 4 and 16, to a flat vegetable patch
outside. Thereafter they took shelter in a small church after the tremors
stopped, and later relocated to a small makeshift plastic tent, in a nearby
garden. Ghimire helped construct the temporary shelter.
An
orphan himself, Ghimire came to the orphanage when he was 4. He went to
Australia’s Pulteney Grammar School on a full scholarship in 2013. Today he mentors
children at the orphanage while he prepares for university.
“This
remarkable young man evacuated the 55 children to the veggie patch as both the
orphanage building and the (neighbouring) new school building suffered
significant damage and appeared in imminent danger of collapse. A painter
working on the roof of the new school was thrown two storeys to the ground,
sustaining dreadful injuries. After initially dealing with his 55 frightened
young charges, Ishwor managed to get him to the local hospital in a taxi. We
should all be very proud of him. (Orphanage operator) Mother Rajan made her way
back in the middle of the night and together they have kept the children safe
and warm in the garden, sheltering under blankets. They did not sleep, as constant
aftershocks frightened the children,” Pulteney’s director of community
relations, Mark Bourchier, wrote to the school community.
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