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Sendong kids start showing signs of hope, improvement

Friday, 27 January 2012 00:00

DESPITE their harrowing experience, many School children adversely affected by last month's floods have shown resilience and positive attitudes, according to a psychology teacher at a local university. "They are hopeful," said Maita Ignacio, a faculty member at the Xavier University's psychology department, of the over 300 pupils at the South City Central School in Nazareth who survived last month's floods. The children recently underwent a half-day session on art therapy and psychosocial processing at their School conducted by volunteers consisting of teachers and students from Xavier, alumni from Lourdes High School and other volunteers.

The School children mostly come from Barangay Macasandig, one of the villages that suffered heavy casualties and much damage to properties due to floodwaters wrought by Typhoon Sendong last Dec. 16- 17. During the art therapy, children were asked to share their experiences through a "projective technique." They were made to draw their personal feelings and thoughts on paper using crayons.

HEAL CDO. Students light candles to form a “Heal CDO” message on the Kagay-an Bridge on Wednesday, to mark 40 days after storm Sendong devastated the city and nearby Iligan. At right, residents pray and light candles during an ecumenical mass. PHOTOS BY FROILAN GALLARDO OF MINDANEWS

Participants were grouped into five or six and were accompanied by facilitators who processed their experiences. Before the facilitators were sent to the Schools to conduct the psychosocial processing, Ignacio said, the volunteers were trained first to make sure that they would impart moral values to the children. "Generally, they have displayed positive disposition and most of them have already accepted what happened to them and their families," Ignacio said.

This cheery outlook in life reflected on the kids' drawings and in their sharing of experiences. But although most of the pupils are now slowly recovering from their experience, there are those who still have manifested deeply seated trauma. Some even cried during the sessions. Ignacio said they have to conduct follow-through sessions for the still-traumatized kids. Their parents would also need to undergo psychosocial processing but on a different level.

By JIGGER JERUSALEM
Correspondent