Transcript
KAREN ALLEN: Even though the roof may be rebuilt, the water point restored, people are quite emotionally traumatised by Cyclone Winston so there's a high level of anxiety for, of course for the children they've never experienced a cyclone remotely like Winston was. They've put together eight young children's story books, based on real things that happened to real Fijian children during and after the cyclone. Each one has the appearance of being very simple because it's for little kids, but it took a lot of time to conceive and work through in terms of meeting the dual objectives of giving them a story to read that would make sense of what happened to them but also helping with their reading skills.
AMY HARRISON: How important is it that these children can relate to what they're actually seeing?
KA: I think it's extraordinarily important. Fijian children spend probably too many hours like many children, reading books or watching stories that are basically filmed or written in other countries. And it can be very hard for them to relate therefore. And it also can give them a kind of sub-conscious conditioning of being sort of marginalised and isolated.
AH: What sort of traumas are you seeing in the children effected by TC Winston?
KA: Quite a lot of children are still in tents because their school buildings haven't been repaired yet. And every time there's some rain and wind they start crying. Or if they wake up in the morning and they see it's very rainy and windy they just refuse to go to school at all. And all of the teachers all over the country are telling us this and before Winston this didn't happen.
AH: The flow on effects of this trauma is having a lasting impact on these children's education, are there any other long term ramifications that you're seeing?
KA: Yes they become very clingy and are afraid to go very far away from their home. They're showing unusually high levels of anxiety about loss.
AH: What do you hope the children will take away from these resources?
KA: What we hope the outcome, and believe the outcome, will be, is that when they see these children who've had the same experiences they do and who look exactly like them, they'll be able to open up and talk more about their experience and also relate to the happy endings of each of the stories. It's about that wonderful word resilience, to realise that yes this horrible thing happened, yes a lot of things were lost but they're still together and they can get on with their lives.
