skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

NW Group Sends “Comfort for Kids” to Haiti

play audio
Play

Tuesday, January 26, 2010   

SEATTLE - The needs in Haiti are many - food and water, shelter, medical supplies and sanitation - but mental health also figures into families' ability to survive after this month's earthquake. This weekend, a Mercy Corps team arrived in Haiti with a mental health mission. The group, with offices in Portland and Seattle, is offering "Comfort for Kids," a program they used in the United States after the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, and at quake sites in China and Peru.

Griffen Samples, technical adviser and trainer for "Comfort for Kids," says the brief lessons and materials are designed to prompt children and adults to start talking, and healing.

"One of the great lessons from previous disasters we've been involved in is that people need to talk about it, they need to get out their stories. But children tend not to talk about things first; first, they act them out. Then, they draw; they might write about it next, and they might talk about it last."

Even before a disaster, says Samples, mental health services in impoverished countries are few; and now, parents who are frantically trying to meet children's basic needs don't have much time to consider their emotional health. That's why, she says, the handouts and other materials are short and easy to use.

"There's simple things about how to answer kids' questions, how to recognize what are normal reactions to trauma, as opposed to bad behavior. A lot of times, people think that a kid is acting out or they're being bad, when in fact, it's actually just a normal response to a trauma."

Samples says her team will work with parents and grandparents, teachers and child-care providers, with materials in French and Creole. For the kids, they've also put together "comfort kits" that include blankets, stuffed animals and books.

Mercy Corps is already supplying food and water in Haiti, and hiring survivors in a pay-for-work program to clear debris and start rebuilding. The group is posting updates on its Web site, www.mercycorps.org.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021