For every child, a childhood
Rebecca Olul
Lesasanemal Primary School is a bustle of activity. Today, the children are all smiles. With their classmates, they have just completed an activity ran by their teachers on clean hands.
The activity is part of a module in the 8-week emergency curriculum being rolled out by the Just Play Programme. This includes safe places for children, identifying how one feels, speaking up, taking action, and talking to someone you trust in the case where a child feels unsafe.
Two children are especially happy to be outdoors: 9-year-olds Rosalina and Jessy.
“I love school because of the work we get to do,” said Rosalina. “I enjoy Math.”
Rosalina giggles and hides her face behind her hands shyly as if she had just said something funny.
“School is okay,” said Jessy. “But I would prefer this.”
Jessy said this matter-of-factly, gesturing to his surroundings.
One could not blame him for preferring the outdoors. The school ground this morning is green, cleared of debris, and the morning air crisp.
Unfortunately, this was not always so. Rosalina and Jessy were in grade two just eight months earlier when the island was hit by category 5 Tropical Cyclone Lola that ravaged the country.
Jessy vividly remembers the cyclone.
“It ripped off our house’s roof, so we had to move to another family’s home when the storm was very strong in the night.”
Rosalina talked about feeling scared.
“I was in our house with my parents and siblings. The wind was scary. Thankfully, our house was fine.”
When the two children returned to school, their classrooms had taken quite a beating. Roofs partially peeled off, trees and debris from the cyclone littered the grounds, leading to days of learning lost in the immediate aftermath. Then, started the cleanup and recovery process - something not new to the children, who only three years earlier suffered the impacts of a category four cyclone.
To help children recover, UNICEF partnered with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) to roll out the Just Play emergency programme in Vanuatu. Just Play is a programme that promotes learning through play, integrating messages of health, gender equality, social inclusion, safeguarding, and physical activity through active and fun participation in football. With funding from the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), Just Play is rolling out psychosocial support interventions. All 147 children currently enrolled at Lesasanemal Primary School will join children throughout schools on Pentecost Island to benefit from the roll out during the second term of the school year.
The teachers rolling out the activities, Nettyson Mabonsue and Rita Matan, were part of a Just Play emergency training participated by 36 teachers from 18 schools on Pentecost who have now returned to their schools to roll out the activities. Equipment to support roll out of the intervention are the Just Play kits that include soccer balls, cones, and bibs, as well as UNICEF-supplied recreational kits.
“I was informed that the training would benefit the school through sports equipment for the students,” said Nettyson.
“During the training, I learned that the activities would ensure that children, whose lives are disrupted by the cyclone, can play and forget their fears and anxieties,” she said. “Children learn more, are happy, and enjoy themselves through hands-on development of skills.”
Rita agrees wholeheartedly.
“We have scheduled the curriculum into eight weeks during the term and will implement the activities for all children from Early Childhood Care and Education all the way through to class six.”
To kick this off, during a staff meeting at their school, the teachers shared a brief of the plan with all teachers and school principal, so that there is wider ownership.
“Mentally, children are impacted during a cyclone and the school can really provide the environment where we can help children recover: Just Play provides a great platform for this,” said Nettyson.
While this is part of the effort to help children recover through psychosocial support, it is an integral focus of a new partnership between UNICEF and OFC to build resilient, mentally healthy children, families, and communities, better equipped to spring back rapidly from shocks, and be prepared for future emergencies.