Children get their own space in disaster-hit nation

A team from Unicef with Filipino children in the super typhoon devastated city of Tacloban.

DPA/Tacloban City

Jennifer Gabot, 10, and her two younger brothers peered into a newly set up white tent at a park in front of a school where hundreds of people were staying after their houses were hit by a powerful typhoon in the Philippines.

The park still reeked of the dead, but soldiers and volunteer workers milled around because it is also the staging point for clearing and security operations around Tacloban City, which was flattened by Typhoon Haiyan almost two weeks ago.

 “There were a lot of dead people here,” Gabot said, pointing to where the 15-square-metre tent was set up, while covering her nose.

 Her family escaped the wrath of Haiyan by rushing to the third storey of a nearby convent when the sea rose more than six metres during the typhoon.

 Gabot said until five days ago they would not dare go to the area where the tent was set up because of the stench that made her and her brothers vomit.

 “My mother told us not to come near here because the souls of the dead people are still here,” she said. “But now the smell is no longer very bad so we come and this is the only open and dry place where we can play.”

 Soon more children, some not wearing footwear and clothed in dirty shorts and undershorts, milled around and curiously touched the white tent, the newest structure to be set up in the space where ambulances, military trucks and other heavy equipment were parked.

 The children were unmindful of the foul smell.

 When a man unzipped the canvas door of the tent, the kids peeked in, giggling, but there was nothing inside.

Pernille Ironside, a child protection specialist from Unicef, said the tent, which opened yesterday, is the first of seven child-friendly spaces that they will erect in Tacloban City.

Ironside said the aim of child-friendly spaces, which will cater to children between three and 17 years old, is to provide a space for children to play and to become kids again after the traumatic experience they went through during the typhoon.

 “When children experience upheaval it’s critical to have structured activities just to get their mind off the tragedy and be just children,” she said.

 “The child-friendly spaces we will be setting up will provide the children a safe place to play and stay while their parents rebuild their homes.”

 Ironside said they would soon be setting up a separate larger tent in the park for older groups that will have a different programme. Each centre will have two social workers to guide the activities of the children and can also provide counselling, if needed, she added.

 From inside the tents, the children began singing the nursery rhyme “I have two hands, the left and the right.” After the song, each of the children introduced themselves. The kids then began screaming as they played a game.

 “I like this,” said Marlon Bantil, seven, whose grandfather and an aunt and an uncle remained missing after they were swept by the storm. He was with an elder brother and two younger sisters in the tent. “I hope they give a prize to the winner.”

 Gabot, who is a Grade 4 student, said she hoped they would be given pencils and notebooks because her bag was swept away by the flood.

 “I miss school, my teachers and classmates, but I don’t think there will be classes soon. We are still living in the school,” she said.

 Lynette Lim, a spokeswoman for the international non-governmental organisation Save the Children, which is a partner of Unicef in running the child-friendly space, said an estimated 4.9mn children have been affected by Haiyan.

 “On Thursday, our team visited the town of Dulag, which is just a few kilometres from Tacloban, and we saw about 100 children lined up in the roadside begging for food,” she said. “We will be sending a team there and we also hope to open up a child-friendly centre in the town.”

Dan Toole, Unicef director for the East Asia and Pacific region, said that while the basic emergencies have been addressed, much more needs to be done.

 “The work has just begun,” he said. “We need additional support immediately.”

 Gabot and the other children in the centre played merrily, laughing and shouting, ignoring the trail of destruction around them and the grim task their families face of rebuilding their future.

 “I like it here,” Gabot said. “I hope we can play here every day.”