Fear Not! A small group leader helps the children remember that they are not alone. OperationSAFE trains local volunteers to help children recover from trauma.
The children play freeze tag as pairs – learning that two is better than one. Friendship is an important part of the healing process.
Currently in the three most affected prefectures of Japan there are still large numbers of evacuees. The shelters are shutting down, but the people still do not have homes to go back to. The number of evacuees in Iwate is close to 7,000, in Miyagi it is 17,000, but in Fukushima it is almost 70,000. Over half of the evacuees from Fukushima have been relocated to other cities around Japan.
Today we held the first day of OperationSAFE camp for children in Tokyo. Children from Fukushima joined together with neighborhood children, made new friends, and learned from Pete the Penguin, “I am not alone”.
After four more days of OperationSAFE in Tokyo we will take it on the road to Fukushima city where children have been living under the threat of nuclear fallout. These children and their families need our help. You can support OperationSAFE’s mission of helping children recover from trauma by giving through Firstgiving or through CRASH Japan.
OperationSAFE combines art, play, story, music, dance and most of all friendship to help children recover from trauma. Each day of the 5-day camp introduces a new theme and a new character. On day 1 Pete teaches the children “I am not alone”. Each game, craft, story, snack and drama helps to reinforce the theme as children learn about friendship even as they are making new friends.
Like OperationSAFE on Facebook and join us for the next few days at OpSAFE Tokyo!
You can consider this the “Making Of…” segment that you get on so many deluxe dvd’s. I wanted to describe some of the work that goes into providing an OperationSAFE camp for trauma children in the developing world. Much of our curriculum, the story and characters have already been made and I described some of that work in previous posts. What I would like to share this time is what it takes to make an actual camp happen on the ground.
1. Making the Decision – Are we going to do this?
We are still a very small organization with limited resources so we cannot possibly respond to everything. But some disasters are of such magnitude that they demand a response. Haiti was such a disaster and we were able to hold two OperationSAFE camps there in the months after the quake. But as much as Haiti was a must, it also taught us a lot about our own limitations. So when we heard of the quake in Qinghai, China’s mostly Tibetan province, we asked a lot of questions before deciding to go forward. We needed local knowledge of the damage, conditions, who we could partner with and what restrictions there might be. To find out these things we asked our partners in Sichuan, the Earthquake Resource Center, to send an assessment team to Yushu, the city at the center of the quake. They took initial aid supplies and discovered schools that had become orphanages after the quake as students had no homes to return to. It was possible to get there, and there were local institutions willing to host the camp. So far so good! But the real key to our success is people. I was greatly encouraged when I called our OperationSAFE training team in China’s Hainan province and they were already preparing for mobilization! This team would be front liners and make incredible sacrifices over the next few months and they couldn’t wait to get started.
2. Preparation
Once we knew that we were going, work began in earnest to prepare for our first Tibetan camps. The Sichuan group got to work on the logistics of training and transporting forty volunteers from Sichuan to Qinghai, recruiting and preparing the volunteers and translating as much of our material as possible into the local Tibetan dialect. At the same time the Hainan group prepared craft and activity supplies for hundreds of children, and held intensive training of the training team in trauma intervention. Meanwhile I serve in Tokyo as coordination between the various groups, apply what we have learned from our first cross-cultural experience in Haiti, and raise funds to cover the costs of the Chinese groups. Everyone is a volunteer at OpSAFE and not one of us gets paid. Many of the volunteers use their evenings and vacation times and gladly pay their own way, but we try to cover as much of the larger expenses as we can.
3. Time to Get on a Plane, Train, Bus …
By the 18th of July all of our groups were in motion, converging from Tokyo, Sichuan and Hainan, traveling by air, rail and road to the capital city of Qinghai, Xinning. There we were to meet with our local partners, join up with forty volunteers from other parts of China for a week of training and then split up to hold multiple camps in the quake zone. However, when we arrived in Xinning, we discovered that our hosts were not on the same page. We hastily diverted the volunteers to Chengdu in Sichuan and spent the next couple of days working out the problems. If you are used to doing things in developing countries then this won’t be a shock to you, but with that many people in transit it was quite a logistical challenge. After a number of meetings, explanations, discussions and some outright negotiation we were back on track to meet the emotional needs of the children. But we kept the training venue in Chengdu and invited the staff of the local hosts to join us there. Once everything was wrapped up we boarded a train for Chengdu and 24 hours later arrived well rested to start training volunteers.
4. Training
A typical OpSAFE camp is a lot like a three-ring circus. Actually it is a four-ring circus with children involved in at least four different activities at any one time. We approach training the same way, with volunteers receiving training in each of the four stations, crafts, games, story and hygiene and then instruction on how to help children with trauma recover and be resilient to PTSD. Each afternoon we rotated volunteers through the stations and in the morning we met with leaders teaching how to coordinate the camps for different situations. Each locale presents different challenges and opportunities and we give the leaders tools to adapt the program for smaller or larger camps, different schedules, and special needs. After three days of this we were exhausted from teaching all day, every day, but satisfied that our students would be able to make a difference for the children.
5. More Travel
Next we packed all of our gear, materials for the camps, sleeping bags and bodies into three vehicles and headed for Yushu, where we would be conducting OpSAFE camps. I have already posted stories about the four day adventure through the Tibetan region of Sichuan and up into the high elevation area of Qinghai where the quake happened. What I didn’t share was that other volunteers were making their way by bus or train to conduct separate OpSAFE camps in other places. Our team of trainers went with one group to help them with the largest camp. Along the way we worked with the camp director we had trained to choose leaders for each of the stations and crews.
6. Coaching
Our goal in training volunteers for OpSAFE camps is that they would be able to conduct camps by themselves. Our role in the camp was to coach the leaders and camp directors and help them with logistics and debriefing. It can really seem quite crazy when you are in the midst of doing a camp in less than ideal conditions, but we encourage them to do their best for the children. At the end of each day I spend time with the volunteers talking about what they saw that day in their crews and at their stations. I usually ask each volunteer to share as it helps all of them to grow and process what they have experienced. As the children open up, the volunteers also open up and many of them deal with issues in their childhood and past that need healing as well.
7. Evaluation and Taking Care of Obligations
After the first camps got started I had to return to Tokyo but our team stayed on to complete the camp and then train a new group for the next camps as well. After the camps are finished though, our work is still not complete. We ask the volunteers, and local partners to evaluate the training and the camps and look for ways that we can do things better in the future. We make sure that all of the expenses incurred have been covered and begin the process of reporting our work to supporters.
OpSAFE International is dedicated to helping children around the world who have suffered trauma. In July and August we trained volunteers and conducted camps for children who survived an 6.9 magnitude quake in the Tibetan region of western China.
These are pictures from one of the most remote camps that we held. At an altitude of over 4,500 meters, our training staff had to spend time on oxygen each day to avoid altitude sickness and a couple of our support team had to be evacuated to lower ground.
I received this picture from the team finishing up camps with Tibetan children in the quake ravaged town of Yushu. She has decorated her cloth with each of the five characters from the story “Pete’s Adventure” and has written next to it these words, “These are my five best friends.”
Each of the characters teaches the children a lesson for recovery from trauma. But I was touched that she would call them her friends. A lesson is information, knowledge that can be helpful or give better understanding but a friend is so much more than that. A friend is comfort, encouragement, and strength.
This girl was at a boarding school when the earthquake happened. After the disaster she learned that she had no home to return to and her family was dead. While some children at the school returned home to their parents or were helped by relatives, she had nowhere else to go and became an orphan and her school an orphanage.
Our team of volunteers give these children love and attention, listen to their fears and comfort them, but after the camp is done they have to leave. Our hope is that the characters that we leave with the children, with the lessons that they share would provide more than just knowledge. We hope that these children would find good friends to see them through the most difficult times.
OperationSAFE camps are designed to be very flexible because the situation on the ground in post-disaster settings is often still very fluid. We found this to be especially true in Yushu. Even with the loss of most of the children to a sudden summer holiday, the team adjusted and continued the camp and actually found it to be more effective as the volunteers were able to spend more concentrated time with the children who had no where else to go.
As the second night of camp wrapped up, I heard stories from each volunteer talking about how their relationships with the children had grown and developed. One volunteer had stated flatly the day before that all of his kids were “fine” and they probably didn’t need any trauma care at all. But after the second day he saw that these children had lots of needs and hurts just under the surface. During the story time discussion a couple of children had tears and opened up with their crew leaders about their own fears and loss. Even with all of the difficulties, it was starting to happen. The connections were being made and love was finding its way through every barrier.
The team would spend two more days with the children but I had to hurry back to Japan. As I hugged them goodbye I knew that despite all of the setbacks and changes, the crucial work that we had come to do was being accomplished, these children would know that they are loved and would receive hope for the future.
Out of the Frying Pan …
After the first day of the camp the whole team was excited at how well it went. Even with the time restrictions and late start we were confident that it would go well. But the next day brought a very different set of circumstances. The close to 80 students at the orphanage went each morning together to a public school. When they returned at lunch they happily announced that they had been given the next week off as a summer holiday. It was then that we learned that the orphanage was not really an orphanage, but had become an instant orphanage after the earthquake. Like many schools in rural China, the students boarded at the school and went home to spend holidays with their parents. So when summer vacation was finally announced the children were ecstatic, except for the 20 or so children who had no home to go back to.
I gathered our team together and shared with them that there are two children that I would do anything in the world for, my own son and daughter. I don’t need five children or ten or twenty to justify going out of my way to love them. I am happy to do it for two. These twenty children left at the orphanage with nowhere to go are exactly the ones who don’t have anyone who loves them like that and need our help the most. We decided to press on with the camp even though most of the children were gone.
Broken Glass
That afternoon, I walked in front of the row of tents that housed the children, looked down at the gravel and was surprised to see broken glass. Not just one or two pieces but hundreds of sharp pieces of glass mixed in with the rocks. Looking at old pictures on googlemap now, I can see that where the tents are standing there used to be a school building. The rubble had been cleared but the glass from the windows remained. That afternoon before the program I spent picking up glass. As I picked up glass and nails and trash, little hands started to join me and soon we had five large wash basins full. Near the corner of one of the buildings I was once again surprised to see a glass IV bottle laying to the side of where the children played. I thought to myself, “no way… there is not going to be a needle on the end of this tube.” But sure enough there was. So often those who are caring day-in and day-out can become desensitized to the little things that matter most. In there struggle to provide food, shelter, clothing, medicine and education, they can easily miss kindness, compassion, concern and love. This is why I believe in bringing volunteers into disaster zones, even months after the heavy work is done.
… to be continued
Shampoo for Junior
An OpSAFE volunteer finds a new friend
Behind one of our training staff are the blue tents and gravel area
The children are drawn into the story of Pete.
A volunteer leader helps out cleaning up trash.
An OpSAFE volunteer listens to one of the students in the telephone game
One of our OpSAFE trainers listens carefully.
An OpSAFE volunteer bonds with two very shy girls during the hygiene station.
An OpSAFE volunteer teaches the children how to brush with Wally
This student added a sun, moon and stars and gave Pete a lollipop!
A beautiful smile!
A student learns hand motions to our OpSAFE theme song.
Each Tibetan name is long and unfamiliar to our Chinese volunteers and so they ate lunch with their crew to help them learn their children’s faces and names and get to know them. The children are for the most part very friendly, but behind the smiles there is a lot of pain. For many the loss of their parents is fresh from the earthquake.
Opening Assembly
With limited time to run the camp the first day was quite frustrating as we had to wait for local officials to come and give speeches at the opening assembly. After waiting for close to an hour, the officials never showed up and we decided to press forward with the camp anyway.
Game Station
The obstacle course was made out of odds and ends lying around, a piece of wood, a desk, some wash basins. The children helped each other go through blindfolded, reinforcing the idea that “I am not alone”
We continued the use of the hygiene station that we developed for Haiti. I cannot tell you how great it felt to see the layers of dirt come off of those little hands. Over five days they will also learn to brush their teeth and receive a toothbrush and paste, learn how to keep germs from spreading and learn how to clean and bandage a wound to keep it from getting infected.
Craft Station
The craft station is located in a blue disaster tent and the children got to color their nametags. One little girl showing signs of trauma already is very withdrawn, unwilling to participate in most activities and when she colored her nametag used black to mark out the entire picture.
AssemblyAdapting to the time-constraints we conducted two stations before dinner, gave the children some time to do their homework and then opened up the session after dinner with a mini-assembly to remind the students of the theme, “I am not alone” and teach them a song.
Adapting as We Go
HomeworkWe are working through the issue of how the children can both do their homework and attend the camp. Our camp director and myself listened to the children recite Tibetan scripts and Chinese texts to help them not be distracted. If they do not finish their homework they are beaten at school, making it an extremely difficult situation.
Our team from Haikou will continue with this camp until the end and then start training volunteers for the next camp in an even more remote village. Please remember all five of the teams conducting OpSAFE camps in various settings and circumstances.
… to be continued
Jonathan Wilson
OperationSAFE
That night we arrived very late at the town of Gansu, deep in the Tibetan region of Sichuan, and checked into a hotel, expecting to press through to Yushu the next day. We woke up the next morning to the beautiful sight of mountains at dawn and a landscape dominated by Tibetan houses, lamaseries and stupas.
The week of the Mt. Fuji climb, I was checking the weather constantly. July is officially the rainy season in Japan and we had a storm front moving in. By the day of, we were fully expecting to make the hike in the pouring rain, but resolved to continue as planned. One last check revealed that by 6 am the rain would let up, but that would be about the time we were supposed to be heading back down! Packing sixteen climbers into two vans, I could tell that a few of them had underestimated the mountain and would not be able to hike in the rain. But they all wanted to try and so we drove out to the base of Mt. Fuji and stopped at a local restaurant to load up on some last minute carbohydrates and change into our hiking gear. Checking the weather once again on my iPhone, it showed that the front was moving faster than expected and would be out of the area before midnight! Seizing our chance we arrived at the 5th station trailhead just as the last raindrops stopped falling and began our ascent of the mountain.
Most reasons to quit occur before you ever even start! It is much easier to seize the opportunity when it arises if you are already there, prepared and have your eyes on the goal.
Our team was made up of seven men and nine women, all novice climbers who had never attempted Mt. Fuji before. Our youngest member was 14 and our oldest in their 40′s. Most people make the climb starting in the evening and timing the summit so that they can watch the sun rise. It is a very moving experience. Because we started late, after the rain stopped, we only had a few hours left to beat the sun and three of our men wanted to try for it. They succeeded in beating the sunrise by climbing Mt. Fuji in three and a half hours. The rest of us took twice that long! But we got to see the amazing sunrise nonetheless from a little further down the mountainside. Not only was the sunrise breathtaking but all night long the stars were innumerable and the city lights of Tokyo below us stretched on further and further as we climbed higher. The rain had cleared away all of the haze that normally covers the metropolis and left us with a real treat. Another thing we realized was that because of the rain there were far fewer people on the mountain than on a typical weekend during the short climbing season. The next day going down, we passed thousands of climbers starting the trek up!
Things don’t always go according to your expectations, but keep expecting wonderful things.
Of course the climb also had its share of mishaps. Two climbers who were unprepared for the cold had to turn back half-way to avoid hypothermia. One of the young men who raced up the mountain sprained his ankle on the way down. And a group of four took a wrong turn on the return trail and ended up on the other side of the mountain and had to take a very expensive taxi ride back to rejoin the group. But these were small things compared to the beauty and challenge of the mountain itself. The biggest challenge was each person’s battle with themselves, to persevere through pain and exhaustion, wind, cold and lack of oxygen to see how high they could go. And also the teamwork, as each group helped each other through the mishaps, and encouraged one another to press forward to the goal. After we reached the summit, I told fourteen year-old Rebecca that she was an inspiration to me, I kept telling myself, “If you can do it, then I can too!” She replied back without missing a beat, that she was saying the same thing about me!
Your personal struggle can help someone else with theirs.
Now it is a week before we start training for OperationSAFE camps for the trauma children on the Tibetan Plateau. And once again I am intensely checking the “weather”, all those things that are beyond my power to control. Will we find the right place to hold the camps? Will we be able to help the right children? Will the right volunteers come and will they be properly prepared? Will the local authorities cooperate, will local leaders catch the importance of what we are doing? Will all of the funding come in? All of these become reasons why we could quit, even before we begin. But we don’t quit, because we have stepped out in faith. We pray, we prepare, we move into place and expect that our opportunity to be of help will come. This is how we move mountains.
How Can I Help? Please make a donation to help children with trauma in Tibet. Through partnerships with local ngo’s and volunteers and our volunteer staff we are able to provide a one-week OpSAFE camp for one child for .50 cents. Your donation helps children get the help they need to overcome trauma.
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