Five Ways the CFA is Serving Children Post-Melissa

Homelessness, job loss, food insecurity, disrupted water supply, and illnesses are all factors affecting countless residents within the parishes of St. Elizabeth, St. James, and Manchester in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.

Thousands of donations have been made towards the fulfillment of daily needs but what about the mind, and what about the children? While caregivers bear the burden of responsibility, the trauma of enduring a natural disaster that upsets one's reality is a weight borne by adults and children alike. Reports have shown that conditions like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can affect at least half the number of children after a natural disaster, with many having trouble sleeping, losing appetites, developing insecure attachment and even fearing the rain.

Here are four ways the Children First Agency has been using mental, emotional and social strategies to promote healing and create room for children to be themselves again.

1. Establishing Static Child-Friendly Spaces (CFS)

   With places of comfort and socialisation suddenly removed from their daily lives, children in the West have a burning need for normalcy. Consequently, the CFA is operating nine spaces (and counting) out of UNICEF-sponsored tents, Community spaces and churches. In these CFS children are engaged over two - three months and are taught how to regulate their emotions, identify and label feelings, cope with loss and grief, stress management, and resilience-building strategies through structured play and group sessions.

   

   Project Community Liaison Officer Julian Gordon presents a UNICEF recreational kit to a Community member in St Elizabeth, supporting games and activities for psychosocial support and mental health initiatives at the Children Friendly Space.

   1. To support this approach, UNICEF Early Childhood Development (ECD), and Recreation Kits are given to participants. Each child affected by existential conflict is at a different stage in development. To mitigate against consequences to growth, ECD packages comprising tools useful to key developmental skills, such as engaging reading material, art and craft supplies, and toys, are integrated into the intervention. For older children, recreation kits consisting of balls, skipping ropes, sports gear, and board games are used to foster familiarity and encourage healthy peer interaction.

2. Carrying out Mobile Psychosocial Support (PSS) activities

   Many limitations continue to exist for the disaster-affected. In light of this, the CFA team takes their efforts outside of static spaces and into schools and shelters, reaching 20 communities so far.

3. Hosting Parenting Sessions

   Parents and caregivers are not left out, as their wellness directly informs that of their ward. The CFA also organises gatherings, particularly targeting guardians, to help them overcome the impact of loss. These meetings uncover subjects such as how to deal with parental stress, positive parenting, adolescent development, and child protection, as well as point them to support resources, should they be needed.

4. Identifying and Referring Cases

   No two children have the same experience. Some may recover on their own, and some will overcome with the help of the CFA, but others may need to be referred for health, social or child protection reasons. In those cases, the children are channelled through the relevant Child Welfare and protection mediums for closer attention.

5. Leading Volunteer Mobilisation & Capacity Development

   Lastly, it is critical that the assistance given by the Agency is delivered in a way that is ethical and safe, done without breach or any kind of infringement. Beyond partiality, the volunteer team undergoes mandatory training in, or review of, child protection rights, ethical communication, and prevention of sexual exploitation. The objective of “do no harm” is central to the execution of the project.

   

   CFA Volunteer engaging children with coloring pages during a Children Friendly Space MHPSS session.

Three months after Melissa's landfall, many are still picking up the pieces, proving that rebuilding and recovery after devastation isn't a short-term task. Restoration will require holistic, sustained, and tailored actions, which the Agency is delivering with utmost care and integrity - through the partnership of UNICEF Jamaica and with support from the United States Embassy and British High Commission in Jamaica. Parishes also benefiting from the CFA’s responses initiatives are St. Catherine, Clarendon and St. Thomas.

If you would like to support the child protection and intervention work of the Children First Agency in this and other projects, click HERE