PLAY THERAPY IS A time-tested tool used by psychologists and social workers to ease the trauma of children victimized by calamity or violence.

But in the mining town of Itogon in Benguet, where a community was buried by a massive landslide on Oct. 8, social workers and theater actors of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) taught children games about how to survive future disasters.

Eva Mari Salvador, a CCP department manager for cultural resource and communication services, said the children quickly related to the games, enabling psychologists to assess their mental condition.

Games, drawing exercises and shared activities to produce household crafts allow them to express themselves and relieve subconscious fears, said Marlene de Castro, executive director of the Baguio Center for Young Adults (BCYA).

Psychiatrists and psychologists value expression, she said, because people who fail to manifest emotional dysfunctions ?grow worse over time and could become problems for society.?

De Castro said nongovernment organizations pushing for better child protection laws had been elated by how government and corporate donors responded to children affected by the recent typhoons and landslides.

Trauma counseling for children has never happened in such massive scale before, she said, even in the aftermath of the July 1990 earthquake that devastated Baguio.

?There was a psychological counseling station for quake victims in 1990, but it did not receive this much [media attention],? she said.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said most of last month?s child-centered initiatives were led by private organizations and were coursed through community leaders.

These activities were not documented in the consolidated reports of the National Disaster Coordinating Council. But the DSWD participated in at least two child trauma exercises, partnered with the CCP in Barangay Buyagan in La Trinidad town, in Barangay Luneta in Itogon, and in Tublay town.

Little Kibungan in Barangay Puguis, La Trinidad, has received more media attention than other typhoon-hit areas because its children were among the 77 who died when a landslide unleashed by rains dumped by Tropical Depression ?Pepeng? buried a large section of the community.

At least 20 people were killed in another landslide in Buyagan.

Compared to these Benguet villages, Itogon?s fatalities are small because the town lost only 12 lives. But children of Luneta are always reminded about these deaths every time they wake up to a 70-meter deep chasm left by the landslide.

The erosion ate through most of the neighborhood, missing the Luneta Elementary School grounds by only a few meters. Luneta stands atop an abandoned open pit mine and is populated by small-scale miners and their families.

Government geologists have anticipated that erosion would occur on the other side of the mountain, said Abner Villanueva, spokesperson of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the Cordillera.

?No one saw the mountain toppling over Luneta. Relocation has become the only solution for the displaced community because even the school faces the risk of another landslide,? Villanueva said.

Students need to hike and cross the eroded debris that buried their houses so they can attend classes.

Those who lost relatives have not been attending classes, said Beverly Madanes, a Grade 6 teacher.

?Some pupils became aloof. Now, they don?t talk much. Before, they were cheerful,? she said.

Normal classes are also disrupted every time a downpour occurs. ?When it rains, we let the children go home early [for their own safety],? Madanes said.

The art sessions conducted by the CCP volunteers detected the same dull behavior from the students who attended the therapy sessions.

?Some children view these misfortunes as parusa (punishment) and that somehow it?s their fault. If they cannot rationalize, they become restless,? Salvador said.