In a deeply moving moment amid the devastation wrought by catastrophic floods in Nepal, 8-year-old Jogyal Ghalé was reunited with his mother on Friday, August 28, 2026. The boy had narrowly escaped death by climbing a tree as floodwaters swept through his village in Rasuwa District — one of the hardest-hit areas in the disaster.
A Mother’s Agony and Hope
His 28-year-old mother, Mati Maya Tamang, had spent days searching frantically across multiple displacement camps, fearing her two sons had perished at their school. She recounted to Reuters how she visited four different shelters, checking lists of survivors — only to find neither of her children’s names recorded anywhere. ‘I had started believing my two children were no longer alive,’ she said, adding that she cried nonstop during those harrowing days.
From Tree to Helicopter to Hospital
Jogyal was evacuated by helicopter on Thursday, August 27, from the ruined landscape of Rasuwa. He arrived at a small hospital in Nuwakot with a broken leg and facial abrasions. At the time, authorities had no information about his family — he was completely unaccompanied. When Reuters journalist Sahana Bazracharya learned of the boy’s case, she traveled to the Nuwakot facility with a Reuters team. There, they found Jogyal holding tightly onto two banknotes — given to him by police officers who had persuaded him to go with them after rescue.
The boy recounted how everything went dark when the flood hit the school. Alongside a friend, he climbed a nearby tree and clung on until help arrived. When asked if he’d been afraid, he simply shook his head “no.”
A Lifeline Through Journalism
Bazracharya left her phone number at the hospital, hoping someone might call. Hours later, Mati Maya Tamang did — having seen news reports and recognized details about her son. At first, she couldn’t believe it. Earlier that week, she had already located her younger son, who had also survived. Both boys had boarded their school bus on Wednesday morning before the disaster struck — a journey that would soon become a turning point in their lives.
When Mati Maya rushed toward the school in desperation, she found only chaos: ‘You couldn’t tell where the school was, or where the market stood — just water, rocks, and mud everywhere.’
Jogyal was later transferred to a hospital in Kathmandu. His mother arrived there and embraced him, visibly relieved. Speaking to Reuters, she remarked with quiet resilience: ‘He’s always been restless since he was little — so this isn’t his first fracture.’
As of the latest official toll, at least 580 people have died and around 2,500 remain missing across Nepal and Tibet following the floods — one of the worst natural disasters to strike the region in recent years. Jogyal’s father is currently working in Japan and has yet to return.