Priya - a girl who lost everything

Life and Dreams

Short Story #4

Priya, originally from Sri Lanka, witnessed the horror of her father being burned to death in an ethnic cleansing campaign. She and her sisters and mother fled Sri Lanka, surviving the harrowing journey across the Bay of Bengal by raft. After being taken into a refugee camp, her mother became critically ill and Priya was badly mistreated. Priya would have become permanent property of the refugee camp where her future would have been extremely uncertain except that she was taken into a children’s home.

Priya has been part of one of APCF’s children’s homes for 9 years. Her two sisters have already graduated high school, and now Priya has also completed her high school education and is attending university.