Travel Diary: Dr. Karen Hein reflects on Post-Tsunami India (Feb. 4)
Dr. Karen Heinis a member of
the Christian Children's Fund Board of Directors and is also a pediatrician.She
volunteered to go to India to help CCF in tsunami-affected areas. This is Dr.
Hein's travel diary - reflecting on the images of devastation, recovery and
beauty in the midst of unimaginable loss.
Feb 4: Child-centered spaces emerging from the
rubble.
We've spent the past four days in Child Centered
Spaces (CCS) set up by CCF in Chennai (Madras) villages severely affected
by the tsunami. Ralph and I are adding health assessment components to the
incredibly effective support programs in these spaces. The situations
range from people still living in rubble on the sites of their destroyed
villages to new temporary quarters (tents or palm/thatch dwellings)
constructed farther back from the sea.
The CCS is either a tent or area where children gather for
various programs. In the morning, they receive supplemental food
(hard-boiled eggs, bananas, chick peas), then there are various times for
playing games with toys supplied by CCF (jump ropes, rubber rings,
soccer balls, Indian board games) or if no formal schooling is possible,
educational sessions for kids of various ages.
There are special sessions for very young
(0-5 yrs) or older kids (5-10 yrs) or adolescents (10-18 yrs) to help
them sort through their experiences and resume some semblance of
normalcy. For example, yesterday we joined a circle of young kids on the
beach near the water. The CCF staff had a series of games and exercises
to help them deal with their fear of being near the
sea.
The older kids had been
working on a little dramatic performance in which they acted out various
aspects of the tsunami including being trees knocked over and people
dying on the beach. The drama continued, showing scenes of children
returning to school and a contest in which kids were able to write about
and share their abilities to cope and rebuild their lives and community.
The drama ended by their receiving a prize from their district leaders and
having a celebration in which they all got up and danced. It was so
incredible to see their energy funneled in these ways and to see how
connected they were to each other ... older to younger ... and adults to
kids---despite the despair and loss, the sense of togetherness and mutual
help is palpable.
We were welcomed into the scene and soon I was
dancing and part of the circle. Later, I distributed the food supplement to
150 kids---they all lined up, sat quietly, then with the help of CCF
workers, each washed their little hands and came with a plate for their 2
tablespoons of chickpeas and a hard boiled egg (dished out by Ralph).
I focused on each little face, feeling more that I now know what we are
doing here.
Our official "job" is to help
craft age-specific health assessments to be incorporated into the
training of workers in these Child Centered Spaces. CCF has a terrific
manual and training sessions based on their other emergency relief work in
conflict zones or previous natural disasters, but now adapted specifically
to India relating to the particulars of this post-tsunami situation here.
CCF has geared up by expanding its staff to include Indian volunteers,
either community leaders, young people or folks from other Indian aid
groups who have suspended their lives and careers to help out
temporarily.
These are some of the most
effective, selfless, dedicated folks I've ever met. The head of the CCF
South India zone and some others are sleeping in the office so that they can
keep the cost down and be available 24 hours a day.
In some villages, energy is shifting towards repairing boats
and planning more permanent communities but progress is a variable
thing. In one destroyed village, as I wandered through the rubble, I
saw pages of school books sticking out of downed palm trees, and looked up
at a 50-foot water tower where a boat was found suspended from the
top!
In the midst of this scene of utter
devastation was one young man living in the shell of his old house. He had
laundry hanging from a line and was sweeping the area in front of his
missing door. He was silent as was I. The rest of the village had moved to
new temporary tent dwellings, but he remained, rooted to some inner memory
of a life or family that existed just 5 weeks ago.
We spent yesterday at Pullicut Island, a
very remote community of 1,000 families located on an island (a sand bar
really) off the coast north of Chennai. The lake that separated the island
from the mainland used to be fresh water and filled with fish and good
drinking and irrigation water. The tsunami made it all brackish, so now
the island, surrounded by water on all sides, has no fresh water at
all. There was no health facility or services before the tsunami and
few health workers are willing to travel such a distance to supply any, so
CCF is thinking of ways to both assess and provide health care along with
the child-centered spaces.
CCF heard today
that they got a grant to help the women develop new income-generating
skills so that they are not solely relying on the fishermen, since it
will be weeks, months or possibly longer before they can resume fishing.
People are afraid to eat the fish since the tsunami [because they fear
the fish have fed on human flesh], and some areas have disturbed ecology
so it might not even be possible.
Our Tamil
colleague, Babu, is a saint. On the way back to the city last night we
stopped at a drug rehabilitation residential treatment center he founded,
and met with 17 young men who are living there and learning new trades
while they are in a drug-free supportive environment.
It was a reminder that as we focus on the unfolding
post-tsunami drama in one tiny bit of a continent, India goes on ... a
billion people are getting on with their lives. And for now, Ralph
and I are just dots along with the others, doing what we can each
day.
Next
Entry: Feb. 22 & #187;