On Tuesday, Finn Church Aid sent special education teacher Johanna Kurki to Nepal. She will participate in organising teacher training and psychosocial support in the disaster areas.
“My work focuses on training the teachers. We will give them a box of tools, practical instructions on how a teacher can support children after a catastrophe. Many of the children who lived through the earthquake are stressed and traumatised,” Johanna Kurki explained.
According to her, the most important thing is to meet and listen to the children openly. Many activity based methods can be used to help children recover from trauma. Games, visual arts and drama are good tools.
The teachers are trained to spot signs showing that a child needs more support than the one provided by the school.
“Alarm bells should ring if a child is very serious, introverted, has trouble concentrating or sleeping, is sweating or nauseous,” lists Kurki.
“I will also work to get disabled children into the temporary learning spaces built by Finn Church Aid.”
Finn Church Aid will build a total of 300 temporary learning spaces in Nepal. The learning spaces will be built in the regions of Lalitpur and Bhaktapur, which were badly devastated by last month’s earthquake.
Finn Church Aid specialises in arranging education in catastrophes. Last week, FCA sent civic engineer Tuomas Väisänen to Nepal to direct the construction of temporary learning spaces. The learning spaces will be built using local work force on a money for work –principle, which gets local people income they desperately need.
According to the Nepalese Ministry of Education, approximately 6,300 schools have been completely or partially destroyed. Over 900,000 children need support for education.
Further information:
Eija Alajarva, Head of Humanitarian Assistance, p. +35840 582 1183,
Ulla Kärki, Communication Officer, p. +35850 576 7948