~ Strengthening the preparedness for psychosocial support for kids on Sint Maarten ~
“To this day, I hear very positive feedback from participants who were part of the Return To Happiness (RTH) training,” says Olga Mussington-Service, Head of Student Support Services Division of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth & Sport.
Shortly after the hurricane, Olga approached UNICEF Netherlands with the idea of bringing the UNICEF RTH program to Sint Maarten. Olga was familiar with the program as she had heard about RTH being implemented on St. Lucia. UNICEF agreed that RTH would be an important program for providing psychosocial support to children after an emergency.
Having secured the finances from the Dutch Early Recovery Fund and the Dutch Red Cross by April, SSSD and UNICEF were ready to facilitate two weeks of RTH Master Trainings.
Return To Happiness
RTH is a program with multiple creative tools to provide for psychosocial support after an emergency or other traumatic event to kids ages four to 12.
The idea of bringing RTH to Sint Maarten was to provide primary school teachers and other professionals that work with the youth, the tools to better support children after natural disasters, such as hurricanes. The program can also be applied after other difficult circumstances, like a death of a classmate, a community fire, or any national disaster.
RTH utilizes various creative methods, such as drawing, singing, puppetry and more, to provide children the possibility of sharing their stories. This, in return, is expected to reduce their post disaster anxieties, as they begin to re-establish their sense of joy, happiness, security and confidence in adult protection, while children who need extra support can also be identified. “Kids often don’t have the skills as yet to express themselves verbally. RTH gives them a chance to process their difficult experience and work through their emotions in a fun and safe environment,” Olga explained.
RTH Master Training
In April, persons from various government and government subsidized primary schools, and other education-based institutions and community centres were invited to join the RTH Master Training Program, to become RTH trainers for their institutions.
“The RTH Workshop is a very exciting experience. It caused me to connect with myself and to be able to relate to others and their situations,” explained Vashira Cuvalay, who participated in the Master Training. Vashira wasn’t the only one, who felt personally affected by the training.
During the RTH Master Training, there were a few emotional moments amongst participants. “I think that many of our educators, who had to go back to work soon after Hurricane Irma, didn’t have the chance themselves to work through their own traumas,” said Olga.
Anna Kroon, Child Protection in Emergencies specialist, who is working for UNICEF on Sint Maarten, explains that RTH gives teachers a “go-to” method, which they can utilize in case of a traumatic event: “In emergency situations, the adults deal first with all the practical consequences of that emergency. Teachers are then the ones often tasked with supporting the children. In a national emergency, such as a hurricane, teachers and their families are affected as well, so it makes their job even more difficult. We hope that the RTH Training has provided the teachers practical tools to support children in a creative and structured way to play and recover,” said Anna.
“The instructors were very hands-on. I understand better now how a child receives information and/or instructions. They demonstrated flexibility and that it’s okay to bend the rules a little to ensure the child is comfortable and having fun,” participant Diana St. Hilaire commented on her experience with the RTH Master Program.
Christel Horst, another participant, was especially happy about the focus on fun during RTH: “I am so excited that the importance of play is highlighted during this training, because so many adults do not see the dire need of this in their children and student’s life!”
After the two weeks of the RTH Master Program on Sint Maarten, 99 persons received their RTH certificate. Olga: “It was such a success that we quickly realized that we had to somehow broaden the program.”
RTH Peer-To-Peer Training
Olga and Anna both realized that to take RTH to its full potential, as many educators as possible should be familiar with it. “This way, if one group of teachers can’t roll out the RTH program after a trauma or disaster, another group can take over,” they figured. “I want every single person in the school to be familiar with RTH! I don’t care if it’s the gym teacher, secretary or even PTA members,” Olga said with a passionate voice.
So “phase 2” of the RTH program was set in motion in May. Most of the participants of the RTH Master Training, who were now all certified in RTH, were asked to conduct peer-to-peer trainings in their school, community centre or educational department.
School Counsellor Ruchinela Macaya, who participated in the RTH Master Trainer and helped with the peer to peer trainings, is happy to have the extra method and “hands on deck” to help kids after trauma: “Thanks to this new method, we have more options within the school. I am just one person, and after the hurricane, I also had my personal worries. It was impossible to counsel all students by myself. Now, the teachers, school staff and I can do it together,” she explained.
Edsel Eusebius, who is a music teacher at two primary schools, was also very happy to participate in the peer-to-peer training. “I experienced Hurricane Luis as a kid, and we had nothing like RTH at school back then. It would’ve been nice to work through my emotions. I became very nonchalant... like I see a lot of kids acting now after Hurricane Irma. Thanks to this RTH training, I feel like I have extra tools to help kids feel safe again. I love that I can help kids work through their emotions now,” comments Edsel with a smile.
RTH Tool-Kits
In February, SSSD revised the content of a sample RTH kit and further adapted the creative materials to the Sint Maarten context. Then the 120 kits were assembled. Each kit, made out of the hurricane-proof casing, is stock-full of materials such as colouring pencils, craft paper, clay, hand puppets, drums, musical instruments and much more.
Now that educators had the techniques down to roll out RTH in case of a trauma, emergency or disaster, in May, SSSD and UNICEF kits were distributed over the primary schools which participated in the training, to provide them with the physical tools to properly utilize RTH.
“Back-up kits” are stored at SSSD as emergency supply. SSSD is also looking into creating “RTH backpacks”, so support RTH facilitators to easily move around with RTH materials, in a disaster.
Expanding RTH in 2018/2019
In August, as schools start again, many of the participating primary schools have committed to implementing RTH training school-wide. They will hold various RTH peer-to-peer training sessions during the first week of school, when teachers are required to meet to discuss the new school year.
Although RTH focuses on primary-school level kids, SSSD also hopes to look into a similar program to use in secondary schools.
Besides focusing on secondary schools, Olga and her team members at SSSD, including coordinators Tamara Groeneveldt and Denise Johnson, have even more plans for RTH: “Going into the new school year 2018/2019, SSSD wants to expand RTH even further with a ‘Community Roll Out’ in August or September. We want to not only focus on afterschool programs, government-funded elementary schools, early childhood development centres, community centres, etc., but also, eventually even take it a step further and include NGOs, churches, private schools and residents.”
“SSSD is very grateful for the support that we have had from UNICEF, the Dutch Red Cross, and the Dutch Recovery Fund. The RTH-program is an important addition to the education system on Sint Maarten and the P.A.T.H. to Recovery program of SSSD. We believe it’s going to have a great positive impact on our youth,” Olga concluded.
