Turkish children traumatised by earthquake find comfort in drama and games

Volunteers try to reduce anxiety among displaced children in Adana

With drama, games and films, volunteers in the southern Turkish city of Adana are trying to bring a sense of normality to the lives of children displaced by earthquakes that left large parts of the country in ruins two weeks ago and has killed so far close to 50,000 people.

“How did you enjoy today’s race?” asked Meleker Eli, a child development specialist, as she knelt on the lawn in front of Adana’s municipality building to speak to three girls, aged seven and eight.

“It was good,” answered Hasanur, seven. “You felt good or really good?” asked Ms Eli. “Really, really good,” said Hasanur.

Every day at 2pm, more than 100 children gather for activities organised by a group of volunteers on the lawn outside Adana’s municipality. The activities are designed to be fun, a distraction from the death and destruction the children recently witnessed.

Therapy will come later, once the children have returned to their routine, says Ms Eli.

According to the UN, 5.4 million children in Turkey were impacted by the February 6 earthquake, and 2.5 million children require immediate support.

James Grey, Unicef chief of child protection in Turkey, told The National that it was important to keep children engaged in normal activities as quickly as possible after a natural disaster.

"That can be play activities or recreation activites or anything to bring a sense of routine, and engage them with each other in a sort of supportive caring protective environment," he said.

"At this stage of the aftermath, it's not necessarily helpful to go with trauma therapy or anything too specialised."

In Adana, children live in government-provided tents, with no heating, electricity or running water. Although the weather has recently warmed, temperatures were below freezing in the days following the earthquake.

Children have stopped going to school and their parents often fear returning home because of aftershocks. A new powerful earthquake hit southern Turkey on Monday evening.

Ms Eli, who heads a local NGO borne out of the earthquake called “Hands of Angels”, says that distracting the children has helped reduce their anxiety.

“On the first day, there was a child from the province of Hatay who repeatedly said things like: do you know how your building collapsed? Have you seen the rubble? Do you know how many people died?” said Ms Eli.

“But nearly two weeks later, he had calmed down. He was waiting for the games to start instead of talking about the earthquake.” The child recently left with his family to the coastal city of Antalya, she added.

Adana, which was relatively spared by the February 6 earthquake, is located more than 200km from its epicentre in south-west Turkey. The fifth largest city in the country, it acts both as a point of refuge and of transit for those who lost their homes.

The NGO’s sports teacher, Harun, said that physical activities help children feel more grounded. “They take power from the ground, feel it and give it to the sky,” he said, describing a stretching exercise.

“During the game, we might need to say that we understand them, and accept that this is a sad situation,” said Ms Eli. “But with the dialogues that we are trying to build with them, we need to make them focus on the moment they are in.”

The children must be sheltered from anything that may rekindle their trauma, she says.

Topics banned from conversations or films include any references to earthquakes, displacement, separation or being underground.

The NGO’s volunteers recently removed the Disney classic The Lion King from the list of films deemed appropriate for children because it includes a scene of separation between a father and son.

A traditional Turkish film that included moles was also considered unsuitable. The small mammals live in tunnels underground, which may trigger memories among children of relatives trapped in rubble, said Ms Eli.

She decided to show the children Disney’s Aladdin because “the flying carpet will make them dream".

“We try to keep them away from social media and the news that broadcast constant updates on the earthquakes,” said Ms Eli. “We show them films that respond to their needs right now.”

The NGO’s drama teacher, Sirin Gulsirin, is trying to coax the children into expressing their feelings via improvisation.

“They talk a lot about death, dying, collapsing, rubble, and that they are not going to be happy anymore,” she said.

Ms Gulsirin showed The National a recent video in which she sits the children in a half moon around her.

She encouraged them to say one word each. Together, the words create a poem.

That day, there was no talk of rubble or death. Instead, the children crafted a story about stars.

They laughed and hesitated before starting to talk.

“One day, I don’t know, but I went to the stars. I saw the planets. They were beautiful,” they said.

They continued: “A star smiled at me. I said it was beautiful. I smiled back.”