Helping Heal the Wounds

AFD Mobile School Monitors meet with a social worker from the US to get training and support on how to work with children who have lost their homes and family members in the quake

This week at the AFD in Haiti a delegation from the US, which included Leah James a volunteer social worker from the University of Michigan led a series of trainings and group discussions to help AFD staff, doctors, volunteers and community members begin to talk about, and find ways to cope with, the trauma they have all been through.

The week  began with a large training session for all 102 of the Mobile School monitors.   They  shared the experiences they’ve had thus far working with children in refugee camps across the Port-au-Prince area.  They gained some tools and guidance on how best to support the kids they are working with.  The sessions made use of a Creole language curriculum developed in January for the Miami schools to give teachers there tools and guidance on how to help Haitian children who are suffering after the trauma of the quake and the loss of family members.  

Sessions were so useful, and in such demand we opened them up community members, specifically to parents of the children in the Mobile School project in the refugee camps where the AFD is working.    By Friday over 200 people had participated in these sessions at the Foundation.   Below  a group of women who have lost their homes, and many of whom lost family  members, talk about what they have been through since the quake with a  with a volunteer social worker on a balcony at the Aristide Foundation.