Children of Tsunami

Tsunami-hit children need counselling
By Ramya Kannan

CHENNAI, JAN. 13. Trivial as it might seem in the context of the tragedy, a number of children who were witness to the colossal damage to life and property on December 26 have lost their playthings and toys, some, even their games. Dispossessed of people and things familiar to them, child victims of the tsunami are badly in need of immediate counselling.

At Thideer Nagar here, a young boy is upset that the slum's cricket pitch, painstakingly levelled by players themselves, has been hollowed out. "We struggled for a long while to make that pitch. Now there is nothing," he says. A grown up shushes him, chiding him for talking about "irrelevant" things. "This is important too. How do we play now," he asks.

The experience of counsellors working with affected children in the coastal villages shows that memories of the tsunami continue to impact their lives negatively. P. Manorama of Children's Health and Education Society, an NGO, has teams working at Pudukuppam, Cuddalore district. Counsellors, who have interacted with those in the orphanage and in schools, have come back with reports of how the children are depressed and afraid. "In the orphanage that the Government set up, there are about 60 children. As part of a therapeutic exercise, our counsellors began telling them stories. The kids piped up and said, `Thanni kathai vendam' (No water stories, please)," she says.

Attempts to make them recreate the incident as a painting or drawing too failed, with the kids refusing to do so. "It is another attempt to restore them to normalcy. Recreating the incident through a painting or drawing will be part of therapy," says Dr. Manorama.
At Akkaraipettai, Nagapattinam, an aid worker trying to persuade mothers to bring their children to the medical camp for vaccination, encounters a child who refuses to come for her shot. The mother explains that the child, who saw the huge waves, has since been frightened. She starts at every slight sound and would be terrified of the injection, the mother said.
Depression, phobia

Others have noticed that children have problems sleeping, and show clear symptoms of depression, phobia and inhibition. "This is a classic phobic reaction, which might take weeks or months to clear," says R. Thara of Schizophrenia Research Foundation. She adds that their psychiatrists had also came across children with a deep sense of fear and insecurity. "They are scared of going to the beach or to school and cling on to their parents and relatives, for fear of losing them."

The best thing is to get them to school immediately, distract them from the stories of the tragedy that the older people are still telling and set them to activity, says Dr. Thara. In addition, a systematic desensitisation, like taking them on group outings to the beach, will help rid them of the fear.

Dr. Manorama says the volunteers of CHES are hoping to provide the kids with toys, colours and drawing books, cricket bats and balls to rid of their phobia.