On June 1st was our Madaraka Day (A holiday celebrating the day when Kenya attained internal self-rule). We organized a play day for the kids of our community from areas which were the most heavily hit. As much as we love our kiddos we know that we also have a responsibility to kids in our community as well. These kids much like the adults in their life went through a lot with the flash floods. Kids love routine and often in routine kids feel a structure and in turn secure. This all changed in the course of one night.
Through observation and consultation, we realized that though these kids may be experiencing trauma. Alice Miller, a Swiss psychologist states “An unacknowledged trauma is like a wound that never heals over and may start to bleed again at any time.” We wanted to give the kids a free and open place where they could feel free to be and enjoy themselves after a very long month. Some kids were not ready to talk about it and when they are we would like to see a trained child psychologist address it so what we did was create a safe space.
Some of these kids lost everything and didn’t know where they would sleep or what they would eat tomorrow. So this safe space allowed the kids to just be kids again.
Where the only worry in life is whose turn is it next. We hoped this would allow them to be more open to talking about everything they had experienced to not only us but their friends as well. We were also able to distribute food and clothes to those who needed it the most, capping off a fun Saturday.
