Sarah Springler (left) and Suzie Craig of Parkway Presbyterian Church in nearby Metairie tell the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association about the church's efforts to minister to those displaced and traumatized by Hurricane Katrina. NEW ORLEANS — Sarah Springler felt pretty much adrift after she and her family fled Hurricane Katrina and temporarily settled in Clinton, MS. Then Sarah — a high school student and new member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — ran into another kid from New Orleans who was also in exile in Clinton.
“We just sat down and talked and talked and school officials let us,” Sarah told a workshop entitled “Katrina’s Children” at the 2007 social justice biennial conference here sponsored by the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association, Jan. 11-14. “They knew how important it was for both of us — a very healing experience.”
Mary Joseph, director of the Children's Defense Fund-Louisiana, tells of the child advocacy efforts of her organization and others in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Many of Katrina’s children are not nearly so fortunate. They are scattered throughout the region — nearly two-thirds of New Orleans’ residents have not yet returned — and because of the chaotic evacuation of the city 18 months ago, some are still separated from their families, said Mary Joseph, director of the Children’s Defense Fund-Louisiana (CDFL).
CDFL is one of a number of child advocacy agencies that has developed resources to help children and their families cope with Katrina’s aftermath.
Sarah’s mother, Suzie Craig, is director of Christian education at Parkway Presbyterian Church in nearby Metairie. Many church communities are using a resource entitled “After the Storm,” developed by Louisiana State University. It includes activities for adults, children and families, she said, “to help children and their families cope with the psychological effects of the catastrophe.”
Ada Simmons, a former New Orleans resident now living in Texas, talks about "Comfort for Kids," a program that helps children of all ages deal with the trauma caused by natural disasters. It is important to work with kids, even pre-schoolers, immediately after a crisis, said Ada Simmons, a New Orleans resident now living in McKinney, TX. Simmons, a trainer with the program “Comfort for Kids,” said, “We start with the youngest kids because they were least able to understand what had happened to them.”
“Comfort for Kids” includes a resource entitled “What Happened to My World?” which was originally created in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and was adapted for post-Katrina children’s work. It also uses a kids’ workbook entitled “My Hurricane Story” — distributed by Mercy Corps, a Portland, OR-based anti-poverty organization in cooperation with the YWCA — which helps kids write and draw about their experiences.
“It’s all about empowering the child,” Simmons said, “those traumatized and those encountering trauma in other kids so they can be more empathetic.”
The importance of having such resources available BEFORE a disaster occurs is crucial, Craig said. “You’ll need a resource you can put in people’s hands immediately because the powerlessness is traumatic,” she said. “When catastrophic events of any kind happen, we need to be prepared for adults and for children. “What we’ve learned is the longer we wait to address the trauma the harder it is to help the kids recover from it.”
Katrina’s children in New Orleans were in trouble long before the hurricane, Joseph said. At the time of the hurricane, she worked in children’s services for the state of Louisiana. When she returned from exile in Atlanta, she went to work for CDFL “because I’d been on the wrong side of failed policies. God gave us what we needed, a chance to get it right.”
Prior to Katrina, Louisiana was the second poorest state in the United States, Joseph said. “Thirty percent of our children were living in poverty, we ranked 34th in uninsured children, 320,000 of them were eating off of food stamps and we were spending twice as much on prisons as on education.”
“We want to blame the levees,” Joseph said, “but the fact is, we weren’t doing a good job for our children prior to Katrina.”
Many of those who have returned to New Orleans are living in FEMA trailers — what one New Orleans resident referred to as “candominiums.” Only a handful of New Orleans’ public schools have reopened, 18 months after Katrina struck.
“I consider these kids homeless until they have a permanent place to live and a place to go to school every day,” Joseph said. “We continue to re-traumatize the children of our state.”
Joseph, Simmons and the Craigs all praised the efforts of churches. “The way people church people have reached out to us in so many ways,” Sarah Craig said, “has made me feel that God is always with me.”
Simmons said that “every story I hear I know is about the power of God.” She said “governments have repeatedly failed the people of New Orleans, especially the children, but everywhere I’ve gone I’ve seen churches to the rescue.”
It cannot stop now, Simmons added. “The children of Katrina are suffering, and they need long-term help.” |
