Update on Espas Zanmi Timoun--or Child-Friendly Space

Michelene, a nine-year old girl now living in a displaced-person camp, softly slips her hand into mine and tugs me over to her table where she just finished painting a triangle tessellation. I hold it up to admire and she beams as her monitor—or local teacher—looks on lovingly. Michelene is just one of over 2500 children who attend an education program facilitated by AMURT-Haiti. Her home was completely flattened during the earthquake, and sadly she lost two younger siblings. Michelene’s mother collected a few family treasures from under the rubble, and led her family to the camp four days after the earthquake.

In January the lives of a million people were radically changed by the shattering earthquake in Port au Prince, Haiti. Among those most threatened by the devastation are children like Michelene. Facing a plethora of hardships, from losing family members to living in flimsy shelters, these children have experienced terrible disruption in their lives at a time when security and safety are vital.
In the days immediately following the quake, it became clear to the AMURT-Haiti team that our efforts needed to focus on this most vulnerable population. The team, consisting of new and veteran AMURT members, came together one Sunday afternoon and began to sketch out potential ways to serve children in a long-lasting, transformational manner. Our Child-Friendly Space program was thus born.

“Child-Friendly Space” is a term used in disaster relief settings to describe various types of support provided to children in a time of crisis. The goal is to address educational, psycho-social, emotional and spiritual needs of children who experience overwhelming hardship by providing safety, security and a transition to normalcy. This approach engages the local community in setting up safe, educational wellness centers that incorporate play-based learning into a familiar structure.

For this project AMURT-Haiti has partnered with two organizations—Catholic Relief Services and Kinder Not Hilfe. Both organizations have worked with AMURT in recent years. CRS worked alongside AMURT-Haiti in 2008 in relief efforts after the major hurricanes in Gonaives. KNH and AMURT built a strong partnership working together in Myanmar and Indonesia after the 2005 tsunami. These common projects created a strong foundation for our new work.

The Haitian AMURT team of community organizers, trainers, coaches and monitors are the backbone of this project. The team begins and ends all decision processes by consulting with the local community to gauge its needs, hopes and goals. All CFS staff are carefully drawn from a pool of applicants from the community itself.

Currently, our team is running six CFSs, working mostly in displaced-person camps throughout Port au Prince and are serving over 2500 children between the ages of 4 and 12. By the end of April, we will have opened 8 sites, totaling 4000 children. One of the largest displaced-persons camp was set up in the immediate days following the quake on the grounds of Petionville Country Club. An estimated 40,000 people reside on the muddy slopes of this transformed golf club, posing numerous threats to children’s welfare. Although the scale of the site seemed dauntingly large, we decided to set up three CFSs at Petionville serving 1100 children. Children arrive in different shifts based on age. Each child receives two healthy snacks per session, as one of the most evident needs of the children is nourishment. Friday afternoons are reserved for staff training and planning.

A typical day at our Child Friendly Spaces starts with children gathering in their “home” space for Circle of Love where they start with a guided breathing exercise, learn new songs, and go around to share a news item, greeting or personal thought. The children are in classes of 25 with three monitors. The children then rotate through four activities to gain balanced exposure to various types of learning. The first goal is to provide safety and security which is achieved through team-building games, partner sharing, quiet reflection and open discussion. At the same time the monitors teach literacy and numeracy skills through play activities. For example, children read stories together, then create play-dough characters, and finally perform a skit with the characters to extend the story. A typical numeracy activity allows children to string colorful beads for friendship bracelets to learn about counting and patterns. Each day children also pause from the energetic activities to do some relaxing yoga asanas. Monitors have been trained to teach basic individual and partner poses to stimulate the child’s inner strength. Children finish their day with another round of snacks and group sharing. Often they do not want to leave at the end of the session, pleading to have another round of activity.

An integral component of a successful and transformational program is ongoing professional development. Our team has been providing ample opportunities for professional growth through rigorous training for all monitors and support staff of the Child Friendly Spaces. The program provides time for monitors to work collaboratively to create activity plans for different age groups that involve psychosocial, educational, and creative activities. Monitors receive regular support on-site as trainers circulate throughout the camp sites to model and do side-by-side coaching. They also receive special weekly training on topics such as activity planning, positive discipline, self-care, safe touch, active listening, group norms, and play therapy. Our goal is to infuse the curriculum with loving and healing child-centered and experiential activities.

Hopefully several years from now, the children who participate in the CFSs will look back at these months and remember something positive and full of light despite all the challenging hardships. As one of thousands of children served by the CFS program, Michelene will anxiously return tomorrow for another day of singing, painting, and especially playing with her new friends.