Enrique Santo in Hualañe, Chile
Teachers in the municipality of Hualañé, province of Curicó, in the Maule region, one of the areas most affected by the earthquake, are worried about the psychological impact the tragedy has had on children.
The municipality of Hualañé contacted the members of the Red Cross psychosocial support Emergency Response Unit (ERU) which was sent to this location after the earthquake, in order to help people overcome the emotional trauma caused by disasters or emergencies.
An initiative was set up in Hualañé to help teachers cope with the concerns the children may have when they return to class, after their summer vacations.The pilot project initially involved 14 teachers from the kindergarten “Castillitos de Sueños,” (“Little Dream Castles” ). The institution cares for some 104 children between three months and five years of age.
According to José Luis Camisón Sánchez, member of the psychosocial support ERU, “this project is based on preparing teachers and caretakers with basic tools to respond to any traumatic experiences that the children may have had, and help them recover. This allows the affected community to participate in its own psychological recovery.”
For Carlos Ramírez, who was cycling through Argentina and Chile when the earthquake hit and who immediately put himself at the disposal of the Hualañé municipality, “ the Chilean people have a strong character, the whole country has united to reconstruct the lost homes. However, deep inside, we have discovered that the population is traumatized. People are very scared: scared every time an aftershock is felt, scared about an uncertain future.”
Jose Luis Camisón, believes that “people should not be ashamed of being afraid. It is a normal reaction, and children are especially vulnerable in this sense, as they cannot express their frustration and fear with words. They do it through behaviour or even physiological reactions, which is why there are so many cases of diarrhea, vomiting, and loss of appetite and sleep among the affected children.”
The therapeutic formation that the 14 teachers from the kindergarten received not only includes strategies to help the children, but also guidelines on how to take care of themselves, in order to allow them to have the capacity to help their pupils overcome the situation they have experienced, and return to a normal life. “One needs to have the capacity to express one’s fears and listen to the fears of others, to validate one’s emotions and express them to the community. People have a right to let go.”
The experience with the teachers is a success and the psychologists were very satisfied with the work done. The initiative will be applied to the whole region. “The next objective is to set up the same programme in Los Coipos, a small locality of some 60 houses, whose inhabitants have suffered greatly because of the earthquake. We hope we can help them return to normalcy in their lives as soon as possible,” concludes José Luis.
The Spanish Red Cross psychosocial support ERU sent to Chile after the earthquake counts 14 members. At the moment they are active in the region of Maule, and in Santiago, where they are training Chilean Red Cross volunteers in psychosocial support. At the same time, they are holding therapeutic sessions with different groups of people affected by the disaster.
Other volunteers from the Colombian Red Cross, Ecuadorian Red Cross and Nicaraguan Red Cross, also specialized in psychosocial support, have joined the Spanish and Chilean Red Cross team in their work to help affected people recover from the tragedy. To date, they have held 453 sessions.
“Chileans are doing the right thing in reconstructing their homes, but they shouldn’t forget to reconstruct their lives, from the insde,” says Carlos Ramírez, who has postponed his journey through America to keep working as a volunteer.