Starting Up Child Centered Spaces in Emergencies: A Field Manual

CCS Start-Up Process: An ExampleDay 1: Register the presence of all animators and children as they arrive. Thechildren are separated by age and organized into groups of no more than 50under the guidance of at least two animators. An animator organizes structuredactivities that include all the children in the group. An animator of eachgroup registers the names, gender and age of their children and notes anyvulnerable children in their group. Easily visible vulnerabilities may includesuch things as disability, severe malnutrition and extreme behaviors such aswithdrawal and hyperactivity. At the end of the day, the animators meet fortwo hours to compile the lists of registered children, discuss the cases of vulnerablechildren, identify community referral resources, organize food distributionand clean-up times, and plan for the next day’s activities.Day 2: In each group, ask children for their ideas about an activity from theirculture to include in the daily schedule. At midday, bring the children togetherin a large group. A child from each group is selected and asked to presenttheir group’s ideas for activities to the larger group. This will be a 30-minutesession that brings all the children together to listen to the new ideas. The animatorswill also provide information on food, health and other organizationalissues within the CCS (brief 10-minute information session for the children).Helpers (two from each group) are chosen for clean-up time where they helpall the animators, who also participate in clean-up time at the end of the day.Activities by Developmental StageChildren 0-3 years old and their parents/caretakersDevelopmental NeedsHow young children (infants and toddlers) respond to stressful and traumatic eventsdepends to a large extent on the people around them, especially their primary caregiver– most often their mother. Young children who are fed, loved and tended to bytheir caregivers will usually do well. When caregivers are upset and preoccupied,the child can sense this and be distressed as well. Every effort should be made tohelp a mother feel calmer so that she can be calm when attending to her child. Whencaregivers are so preoccupied that the baby is neglected, then the baby suffers fromlack of stimulation. The mother should be supported to find ways to continue to interactwith her baby, even though she is very worried or very busy or both. When youngchildren are separated from their caregivers or their caregivers die, the young childcan be seriously distressed. The best response is to ensure that someone the childknows well is caring for him or her, being in close proximity and contact.GuidelinesThe process of gathering mothers together should include:44