Comforting kids in Haiti

Thanks Griff, for being there and helping launch this. I think some of the youth leaders in the Mercy Corps Global Citizen Corps program might be interested in following this story, maybe seeing if there is a way they can help and connect too. As you know, they work on local issues, organizing other youth in their countries: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, US, UK. Lets keep in touch.

Greg
Global Support Team,
Global Citizen Corps

Glad to hear you are focused on kids. Is there any trauma diffusion therapy going on? Am a recently retires child psychotherapist. Let me know if I can offer anything useful from this distance.

dear griff - we are definitely following this story. i wish so much i could be there to help in this unbelievably valuable work. thank you SO much for caring about the emotional hunger and feeding the heart with your kindness.

Griff--Good to hear you're there, using all your experience from 9/11 and other disasters. Take care, Alissa

Hello-
I am just seeing your blog for the first time and am wondering if in your efforts to find a teacher among others, who can help you with your program, if you harness this person as someone to distribute letters from students in Seattle to specific children in Haiti. I say specific, because my students are hoping to establish a relationship with individual children in Haiti, so that they know over time that there is someone here who is thinking of them always.
My students have written letters of comfort and well wishes for children in Haiti. Their goal is to be able to send letters regularly that can be given to the same child as received their first letter, so that the children will know they are still in our thoughts as the months pass following the disaster.
I have 27 students who have already written letters and they are organizing the rest of the school to participate. Do you know anyone here who will be traveling to Haiti "soon" who might carry our letters with him or her. I realize that until things are rebuilt, we need a couple direct contacts. Do I come myself to help you? If there is a group I can join, I will seriously consider coming.
In the meantime, the children in my class have also begun a fund raising campaign and are deciding on what else they want to do, perhaps they to can contribute to your comfort kits effort.
Good luck, and I hope to hear from you.

Hi Greg --

Great idea, Thank you. I've been coordinating with MC Psychosocial team members from China and Gaza - Comfort for Kids' most recent programs - to gather their lessons learned and incorporate them into our program talking points with partners and local organizations.

Once we have those conversations solidified and are more deeply engaged... connecting youth to youth could be brilliant - if there's connectivity. (It took me about 7 minutes to get to here from opening my email and I'm in Port au Prince...) But as things get better - connectivity will too.

Feel free to nudge me in a month if you haven't heard back yet - but I've heard your message and will weave it into conversations, starting with the ophanage leaders I'm meeting with tomorrow.

Thanks -- best,
Griff

Hi Caroline,

Excellent idea -- thank you. Too soon now for interchange, but if your kids and you can wait a little...we're not at that level yet, and so many schools are destroyed... but as we get the most urgent work done, we are also establishing the longer term connections, and that's where your offer should be. Right now there is a lot of population movement - people are moving back to the rural areas... so for a long term relationship it's hard.

Thank you, to you and your students.
Griff

Hi Griff
I have an idea for helping homeless kids and adults in Haiti.

The Oregonian ran an article on the need for tents. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/haitis_homeless_plead_f...

Portland would be a great source of used family size tents, given the amount of people that spend time outdoors here, and often have unused equipment. I would be happy to arrange a collection via neighborhood, scouts , work or other resources if I could be assured they would be needed and there would be a way to get them there and distributed.

Let me know if I can help in this or other ways.

Hi Greg,

Thanks for your note. Totally agree that there may be some great places to link Mercy Corps' Global Citizen Corps program -- but with 90% of the schools destroyed in Port au Prince (PaP), we're working first on building local capacity to support the needs of earthquake displaced and affected children, and as schools reopen, will look for linkages such as this.

It's in the sequencing. As I commented to someone else on the blog -- nudge me if I haven't reconnected in a month or so. And if it looks like schools are getting up and running sooner, then nudge me sooner!

Best and let the the Global Citizens know it will mean the world to the kids and teachers when I say they and other students - such as Caroline's, from another posting, are reaching out.

Thank you all,
Griff

Dear Redwing and other blog followers --

Thank you for following this blog and the story. Hold it close to you and stay with us. Mercy Corps will be working in Haiti to respond now and to help lay foundations for a stronger future.

I learned from personal experience post 9/11, post-Katrina, with the Peru and China earthquakes... that when huge, unimaginable disasters happen, there is an opening to share of ideas and actions that can be galvanized unlike no other time. We are certainly seeing that here.

Our experience in promoting resiliency and recovery elsewhere has a place in the efforts here and is being heard and responded too. Watch this spot for updates coming very soon, I promise.

Thank you for your wishes,
Griff and the team

Hi Alissa,

Thanks for your note. We are very much are bringing all our lessons learned and experiences into our program here. Mercy Corps started Comfort for Kids (C4K) as a short term program in NYC post-9/11, with the goal of building the capacity of non-professionals to provide age-appropriate comfort and support, and to know how to promote resilience in at risk children of all ages (0-3, 4-6, 7-10 and 11+). A key message was to help the caregivers know the difference between children's normal reactions to a catostrophic event in a child's life as opposed to "bad behavior" so they could support children appropriately though their normal reactions.

A simple message that resonated very, very widely. Our "short term program" lasted almost 3 years. In total we trained 8,000 caregivers including paraprofessionals and professionals -- day care workers to social workers, family workers and case workers, nurses, and firemen and NYC police including 150 members of the SVU, all individuals who worked with vulnerable children. The program closed but it's lessons learned were brought forward to Katrina, and hurricane Stan in Guatemala, and the earthquakes in Peru and China...

Everywhere we've been we share the same key messages with the mission to help as caregivers gain confidence in their ability to help jumpstart the natural resilience that most children have, and in doing so, that they can help minimze the number of children who are so affected that they require deeper, sometimes long term professional care. We've done this in a lot of places, and we can do a huge amount of good with the program here too. We may be new to Haiti, but our key themes are resonatng loudly with those we meet.

Best to you and the gang,
Griff

Hi Griff, I hope this finds you well and I hope things are looking up for the people in Haiti. My daughters Daisy troop here in Jacksonville Fl really want to do something for the children in Haiti but we are trying to figure out a way to do something. We have some ideas but are really unsure about them. I know money is a big thing and with having 5 year olds they want to see a product that they can collect or something in that way. We were thinking of collecting shoes but we are still lost how to get them there and who we could talk to figure out a way to get them there. Also we were thinking of doing some kind of little kits for the kids just to make them feel more comforted during this really bad time. We were thinking of making a kit to have a coloring book, crayons, tooth brush, tooth paste, shampoo, and maybe somehting else and a note from our kids saying "we are here to help and we care about you" I just dont know of any place here in Jacksonville fl were we could take them to be sent. If you have any insight that would be wonderful. Thank you so much for what you are doing and God Bless you and everyone there! Our Prayers are with you!

Anna Timpone