Mr. Chairman and members of the committee: I am pleased to be here representing Save the Children and to help you address the special needs of children in times of crisis.
A word about Save the Children: We are a global, child-assistance organization working since 1932 in many of the poorest communities in the United States. We also work in 48 countries overseas with programs of health, education, and economic development and, most relevant to this committee’s interest, in programs of disaster relief and humanitarian aid in times of crisis. I want to commend Senator Dodd and the committee for their efforts to ensure that the special needs of children are taken into account in difficult times, such as those we now face. The “Protecting Children Against Terrorism Act” would provide many of the things that Save the Children has long felt are essential for children in times of crisis.
Let me share some of our experience from working with children in crises around the world, as in Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, and Mozambique as well as in our work here in the U.S. The first of our “lessons learned” is the need for preparedness. Different disasters bring different risks. A hurricane in Honduras, or an earthquake in Turkey or a shooting in a U.S. school all require different kinds of preparedness but common to them all is the need for a plan, which encompasses both an assessment of potential risk and common-sense steps to protect the children. Many institutions important to children do not have such plans or, as is so often the case, the plans they do have address the last disaster, not the next one. We have learned from our work in wars and other emergency situations that you have to plan specifically around the needs of children – whether it is a safe area to gather or a clear plan for family reunification. This is the area where Save the Children has devoted its attention.
The lack of disaster planning is, unfortunately, especially the case in many of the community-based organizations in the United States that form part of the day-to-day safety net for children in their out-of-school time. Few of these programs have done any of the essential preparation of planning: For example should they stay open or closed when there is a national emergency? Should they tell the children about the incident or ignore it? How can they provide needed support and outreach for family members? How can they get special counseling services for those who obviously need help?
The second lesson we have learned from our international experience is the importance of making sure that every child has access to a "safe place," a place that re-affirms the normalities. From our work in refugee camps, we have found it extremely important to provide a "place" where children can be with other children and where they have structure and can engage in repeated activities with which they are familiar. Children, in the wake of the disaster, need a safe place to go with as little disruption of routine as possible. In times of crisis, children need stability. These activities - regular school classes, after-school programs, games, sports, and arts and crafts - are important to restore the sense of normality that is such an important part of recovery from trauma. In addition, we have found it helpful for children and youth to be part of the solution. After this tragedy, many of our programs, at the request of the children, responded by having them write letters and organize fund-raisers for the victims and their families. We also found that our new website YouthNOISE.org which is designed to be a place where youth can share ideas and gather information, was extremely popular in the weeks following the initial tragedy September 11.
Third, the involvement of caring adults before, during and after the traumatic event is key. In our overseas work in humanitarian relief, having Save the Children staff and volunteers in place, as in Bosnia and Croatia, working before the event was a great advantage in our ability to protect the children. In the U.S., our after-school programs offer the continuing presence of an infrastructure of caring adults -- teachers, parent volunteers, and AmeriCorps, VISTA and Foster Grandparent volunteers – and provide the security that is so important to the children. As a result of this most recent experience in the United States, we have also learned the importance of preparing and training this infrastructure of volunteers and paid workers so they can respond in the best way.
We have learned that a good response is a flexible response. From our work, both internationally and in the United States, we have learned that children and families react differently to the same traumatic event or crisis. Some seem to be able to take the toughest events in stride, while others suffer severe stress. And many children can handle one stressful event, or even two, but repeated traumatic events take their toll. We have just completed an informal survey of trauma response needs in our 240 after-school, mostly rural, program sites in the U.S. We have also conducted a series of forums in the New York area to advise parents on how best to cope with their children’s concerns.
Not surprisingly, while concerns remain high in the New York area, many children, particularly those in programs in the most remote, rural areas, were reported to be relatively unaffected by the attack on the World Trade Center. As one respondent from a rural site in Nevada put it, “What the outside world does, doesn’t really affect us.” But some of the after-effects have clearly affected them. At our program sites in West Virginia, there is some concern among the children about the reserve call-ups and how it might affect them and their families. West Virginia, incidentally, according to one of our respondents, has the highest percentage per capita of people who are in the reserves, in the military, and who have participated and died in every major conflict since the Civil War.
There is also a tendency in many of our program sites to resist, or discount, the value of mental-health services. This ethic was described by a parent in a recent forum led by one of our staff, in these words: “What happens in the family, stays in the family!” Nevertheless, having visited many of these sites, I believe there is a definite need for mental health services that “what happens in the outside world” does, in fact, affect the children. Unfortunately, many communities do not have personnel trained in how to detect signs of trauma, much less deal in a positive way with helping family or child deal with trauma.
A disturbing finding of the surveys was that some children expressed anti-Arab feelings, and some children of Middle Eastern background felt vulnerable and isolated. This points to the need for a re-emphasis on cross-cultural education, multi-cultural understanding and tolerance and the opportunity to use our schools, after school programs, and our youth leadership programs as a place to reinforce the values of respect and tolerance.
One of our greatest concerns is the lack of access of these children, including those in rural areas, to individuals trained in dealing with trauma and violence. As an initial step, Save the Children, in collaboration with Yale University’s National Center for Children Exposed to Violence, is conducting “train-the-trainer” sessions for our program leaders from around the country. This is so they can, first, recognize the behaviors in children that are the signals of stress and that suggest the need for extra help and counseling and, second, build the linkages at the local level so that there is an infrastructure of mental-health services available for children and that those services are ready to help in times of crisis. We are using some of the funds that we raised after Sept. 11 to prepare materials and tool kits on these subjects for after school programs.
Our recommendations to the committee are:
- Support training and technical assistance to both school-based and community-based after-school program staff and volunteers, including the national service network of AmeriCorps, VISTA and Foster Grandparent volunteers, so they know how to help local programs in the development of sound emergency plans, and in the implementation of the basic post-event strategies. Teaching them how to identify behavioral clues of child stress and how to ensure “safe places,” “constructive activities,” presence of “caring adults,” are critical next steps.
- Assist in provision of mental-health services to children and their families, including in the poor, rural areas of our country where there is an acute lack of services.
- Support the development of activities and curricula that will promote enlightened cross-cultural understanding.
