After Hurricane Irma, UNICEF’s white educational tents became a fixture at Virgin Islands schools, but they are just part of what the organisation says it has provided to some 7,800 children around the territory.
It helped that they got a head start. Unai Sacona, the education manager for UNICEF in the Eastern Caribbean area, is based in Barbados and took charge of the emergency response before Irma even hit.
He added that the agency’s initial focus was on providing immediate needs, including tents, water purification tablets and hygiene kits. UNICEF also shipped tarpaulins, blankets and potable water containers from global and regional stocks stored in Panama.
“We were on the first plane to the BVI and met with [Education and Culture Minister Myron Walwyn],” he said.
Mr. Sacona added that one of the organisation’s major goals after every disaster is to provide psychosocial support to affected children and their families through the “Return to Happiness” programme.
Schools across the territory were implementing the initiative even before the official start of the school year on Nov. 6, thanks to the seven early childhood learning centre locations UNICEF helped open around the territory, serving ages 3 to 8 until the formal start of the school year.
‘Return to Happiness’
“The Return to Happiness programme helps to work through trauma using play, drama, songs, art and poetry,” Mr. Sacona said.
He credited Dr. Virginia Rubaine, the director of Community Mental Health Services, for spearheading the rollout of the initiative.
“One of the things we do is ask kids to draw their homes before, during and after the storm,” he said. “In a way, that urges them to process and reflect on what happened.”
Mr. Sacona explained that UNICEF has always placed a priority on getting kids back to school after disasters.
“The education system is important,” he explained. “Families need time to put their lives back together and rebuild their homes. We try to work to get school up and running within a month.”
Thanks in part to UNICEF, he said, 99 percent of children in the territory were able to resume school by Nov. 11.
“Kids are really resilient,” he explained. “It’s our job to provide them with safe spaces where they can be kids.”
Mr. Sacona said there is no timeline for UNICEF to exit the territory, and that the agency is working with government leaders to help build back resilience.
“Science says this will happen again,” he explained. “It’s not a matter of if, but when.”
Partners
In the VI, UNICEF also partnered with the United Kingdom aid organisation Team Rubicon, which helped set up the tents, and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, which is installing cisterns and hygiene stations for all the centres.
In the future, UNICEF plans to help raise awareness about health and hygiene, including heading off mosquito-borne illnesses by distributing mosquito nets to families with children.
Muriel Mafico, UNICEF deputy representative for the region, visited the VI shortly after Irma, and in an October blog post on the UNICEF website mentioned how she witnessed children playing in one of the temporary learning programmes in Baughers Bay.
“People are rebuilding. They are moving on,” she wrote. “[W]e saw people working so hard to set things right again, to build the learning spaces so the children can continue their education. Now hundreds of children are attending classes in the four tents at Baughers.”
This article originally appeared in the Dec. 21, 2017 Beacon print edition.
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