Azka made headlines across Indonesia and was hailed as a miracle as well as a sign of hope during Cianjur’s darkest days.
With Azka gaining fame as the boy who beat the odds, medical workers, volunteers, fellow survivors as well as ministers and other dignitaries wanted to meet him.
Rawa Cina residents told CNA that Azka’s miraculous rescue also brought much-needed public attention from relief workers and public officials to the devastated village.
With a majority of the houses, buildings and schools completely destroyed in Rawa Cina, the government is currently trying to relocate residents of the remote village to a safer area and provide them with free houses.
LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY
Doctors told Eka that his son appeared to have no serious injuries although, for a short time, Azka had trouble breathing having spent two days surrounded by thick and humid air laden with dust and fine particles from the ruins. But it is the psychological scars that are more worrying.
Azka’s sister Elsa is also suffering from psychological trauma. “To this day, she wouldn’t set foot in Cianjur. Not even to visit her mother’s grave,” Eka said, adding that she also developed a phobia towards multi-storey buildings, fearing that they might collapse on her.
For now, Azka and Elsa seem to be adjusting well at their new home, a house in a remote village surrounded by rice fields where their father grew up.
“Azka seems to be enjoying the time spent playing with his cousins. He made new friends at school,” Eka’s mother Cucun, who also goes by one name, told CNA. “He feels safe here because he is far away from the earthquake and the devastation.”
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