Read-along as therapy for Guihulngan kids

GUIHULNGAN, Negros Oriental—Three-year-old Hayden Abenir walked up to his mother, Ferlita, and whispered something.

Ferlita, who was breastfeeding her 6-month-old daughter, looked at Hayden, tapped his shoulder and said: “It’s OK.”

There was nothing new with what Hayden had whispered to his mother.

He was merely retelling his experience during the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that badly hit Guihulngan and adjacent northern towns in Negros Oriental, as if seeking reassurance that it wouldn’t happen again.

“He repeats the same story. He would say, ‘I was thrown out of the house because of the earthquake. I was shaking. It was painful,’” said Ferlita in Cebuano.

She noticed that her son had been unusually quiet since the earthquake on Feb. 6.

The boy used to be upbeat and friendly but communicating to him now had been difficult. Even if two months had passed since the devastating tremor, his experience that day was the only thing the boy talked about.

Trauma

Several children inside  Guihulngan National High School-Poblacion Campus, which serves as an evacuation center to 126 families, are still suffering from the trauma caused by the earthquake, according to City Councilor Ana Carla Villarmente.

While there are visiting organizations and groups that provide debriefing sessions to evacuees and some residents, there are no regular debriefing exercises given to children.

Most of them cope by laughing and joking about their experience, said social worker Amy Taganile.

“I think they find comfort in the fact that they have different stories about a similar experience brought about by the earthquake,” said Taganile, also an evacuee.

Most of the evacuees in the school are from Barangay Poblacion who originally lived near the river and the sea.

Taganile, a social worker by profession, assists the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the local government in organizing the earthquake victims.

Help from different groups have poured into Guihulngan since Feb. 6.

Apart from relief goods, 85 emergency shelter kits or temporary shelters were provided by the DSWD, the local government, International Organization for Migration and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).

Eleven tents were also donated by a group from Russia.

“Most of the evacuees sleep on the floor with sacks as their beds. When it rains, we would jokingly say that we sleep in water beds because our sacks are soaked in water,” said Taganile.

There used to be 226 families living inside the school but 100 families have returned to their homes either to repair or rebuild new shelters.

“The 126 families who are left here are those whose houses are partially or completely damaged,” said camp personnel and high school teacher Daryl Paglinawan.

Of the school’s 37 classrooms, 14 have been condemned. With the remaining 23 classrooms, classes were arranged by shifts.

“Teachers like me are also traumatized. In the middle of the class, our chairs will suddenly rock. This happened every day. At some point, we got used to it but there is still that fear. You cannot discount that,” said Paglinawan.

Villarmente said the city government had not yet identified a relocation site for these families as they had not obtained a copy of the geohazard map and consult with the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

“We cannot do it (identify a relocation site) because we cannot just decide where to relocate the people because the place we might choose sits on a fault line,” she said.

Villarmente said the LGU was monitoring all earthquake victims to help them acquire building materials or obtain relief goods.

Taganile said there was a need for the children to feel safe and happy. “There is a need for them to feel that life goes on despite what happened,” she said.

Therapy

Plans were under way in partnering with various organizations, including the Philippine Daily Inquirer, to organize storytelling sessions as part of the therapy to help the children recover from the trauma

On April 9, a kick-off read-along session was organized with school teachers Milagros Amodia and Yvonne Nillas as storytellers.

The session was attended by 130 children, who were given stuffed toys by Project Bearhugs led by Cathy Babao. Project Bearhugs is a joint effort of Yakapin Batang Mindanaw, Black Pencil Project and Climb Against Cancer.

The project gathers and gives toys to children in calamity areas. For the Guihulngan read-along, elementary pupils of Miriam College donated their stuffed toys.

Former Inquirer reporter Andrea Echavez, a native of Guihulngan,  also helps in organizing the series of therapy sessions.

Hayden was smiling when he got his teddy bear. He looked at his mother and said, “It’s nice.”

Teary-eyed, Ferlita said she was thankful for the people who spend time and effort to visit them.

“Little activities like this make us feel that we still matter, that some people still think of us two months after the great earthquake,” she said.