A little girl who was saved from drowning

Press, 30 September 1986, Page 14

A little girl who was saved from drowning

A Fijian boy, Emosi Zinck, who has been “adopted” by a Christchurch woman who sponsors the Zinck family, has written to the Junior Press giving a “child’s eyeview” of what appened to his family in the floods that struck his country earlier this year.

I have a small cousin. Her name is Ivy and she is aged four. Several months ago there were heavy rains here, which lasted for more than three days, so the place was flooded. The house where Ivy lived was beside -a small river and the house was flooded in the rains.

My father swam to their house with a rope. First he tied the rope to a breadfruit tree, and then when he reached their house the tied the other end of the rope to one of the stilts underneath the house. This was so the

members of Ivy’s family could hold on to the rope while they were crossing the river.

My father had to do that because the water was flowing beside Ivy’s parents’ house very swiftly. If the members of her family did not hold on to the rope they would have been carried away. One of my relatives brought Ivy out of the house. As they were crossing the river my father could see my relative and Ivy were being carried away by the current. Then when he looked again Ivy was not there. Quickly he jumped into the water to find Ivy. Luckily she was stopped by a tree, which had fallen down.

My father brought her to our home, where she was bathed and served a hot cup of tea and some biscuits. After that she was sent straight to bed.