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Helping the earthquake orphans

Five health professionals from the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), experienced in areas of major conflict, will reach the devastated country on Sunday.

Their first step is to evaluate the scale of the problem.

With the latest death toll standing at more than 10,000, experts have no idea how many troubled children they will encounter.

Children who have lost parents or been physically or psychologically scarred will be first in line for help.

"A child's first reaction - fear - will quickly fade. This may give the impression that the children are not affected, but this is not the case," said Ingrid Leth, a clinical child psychologist with Unicef.

Child sociology and psychology expert Rune Stuvland, based in Pristina, Kosovo, says after a traumatic event nightmares can strike well into adulthood.

Mr Stuvland is part of the Unicef team going to Turkey. This will be his first direct experience of trauma after natural disaster, following seven years working with schoolchildren in Bosnia.

Quake memories

He told BBC News Online how a woman in Skopje recalled surviving a bad earthquake in the town in 1963, when she was a small girl.

"She described the ground shaking, windows shattering, running out into the street and seeing dead bodies, blood and injured people everywhere," he said.

"Thirty years on she could for the first time see that some of the fears she had were as a result of this experience.

"In Turkey we will have a lot of children and families who have experienced something that has threatened their life directly."

A huge number of Turkish children have been affected by one single disastrous event, while children in Bosnia and Kosovo have been through the innumerable types of suffering that make up a war.

But, said Mr Stuvland, the Unicef strategy will be remarkably similar.

Overwhelmed

His team will establish the best ways to make use of teachers and health workers who will be working with the children long term.

"We will have to do a lot of work with the school system and health workers, who will need support. The Turkish system is very advanced but they will be completely overwhelmed," he said.

"The professionals we are working with will themselves be traumatised - and they will have a lot of secondary trauma because they are exposed to a lot of suffering," he added.

With many school buildings collapsed, restoring the education system is also a priority, he said.

Unicef will provide portable blackboards, but can also train teachers in health education to look out for post-traumatic shock syndrome, or simply to make sure children keep healthy.

Press officer Sally Bernheim told News Online how the agency worked with children to help them recover psychologically.

Guided therapy

"We get an area set aside for children where they are safe and they can engage in social and recreational activities such as playing, drawing, which can help kids to relax and feel secure," she said.

"We have guided therapy activities in the classroom where children can express their feelings through art and have a caring adult talk to them about their feelings.

"Children also suffer trauma over things we might not think of immediately - not just losing a parent but a family pet or a favourite toy," she warned.

"They may appear to be OK, but in actual fact they may still be suffering. In Kosovo some are having nightmares 10 years on."

Relevant Stories

Miraculous quake rescues (21 Aug 99 | Europe)

Internet Links

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International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

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