CHILD FRIENDLY SPACE
The 7.9 massive earthquakes that struck Central Nepal on 25th, April 2015 has left thousands dead, injured, and homeless. The death toll continues to rise and, latest, as of 20th May, 2015 has already crossed 8400 mark. Millions of people have lost their house and the countless people who managed to
survive were left suffering from various injuries, deprivation of essential needs, and the psychological shock.
Countless aftershock is further putting old residential buildings, traditional structures, and cultural heritage sites at higher risk and also the traumatising the people especially the kids and the woman. The effect of havoc created by the earthquake and its aftershock is overwhelmingly falling on these groups of people by increasing physiological stress and the cases of trauma. The Government, non-government and the private sector have been making numerous efforts in providing rescue and initial relief, however, the mental and physiological stress of these groups of people is remains out of focus or the coverage of psychological counseling is very limited. The devastation brought by this massive earthquake is just too overwhelming for these group of people and we know that time is of the essence.
About 1.7 million children are affected by earthquake and such kids have witnessed the laying dead bodies, loss of friends, relatives, neighbors, broken houses, school building etc. They have been going through the phase of mental stress that will certainly affect their readiness to attend school and the
academic performance. In fact the situation on the ground is so severe; immediate response is critical to save future human capital of the country. It will be colossal task for the government, development organization and the practitioner to reduce the mental stress and get back to their normal mental state. Country which has already failed to meet the millennium development goal in providing education, psychological first aid support is requisite to avert the further increase in school drop-out rate and below
average performance of the kids.
0 Comments