Putri and her friend Anif have been inseparable since the earthquake. Each day, the little girls come to the giant white tent, grab a handful of crayons and set to work.
Five-year-old Putri sketches a mountain with gray smoke snaking from its peak. ”Merapi”, she says, referring to the increasingly active volcano nearby.
Next to her, Anif slowly draws a few lines that gradually take the shape of a tiny house.
Neither girl speaks about the quake, whether their parents were injured or if their homes are still standing.
”For the past week, the children here have not had a normal life. They’ve been confronted with constant stress,” says Rhama, who works at one of six United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) centres in the quake zone on Indonesia’s Java island. ”Here, we can welcome them to a place that is safe.”
Unicef estimates that 40% of the tens of thousands wounded or displaced by the May 27 quake are children, and 15% of those are under the age of five.
So since Tuesday, the agency has set up recreation centres, including this one in hard-hit Bantul town, that provide 100 children a day with a temporary respite from the destruction — and a first step toward emotional recovery.
”There are very few serious cases of post-traumatic stress due to the earthquake,” explains Ayda Idoia Eke, who is heading up the Unicef project.
”Only 5% of the children are suffering from shock. Some of them refuse to speak, others cry and some won’t even go into any kind of structure with a roof,” she says. ”But for all of the children, the earthquake will have psychosocial consequences.”
The parents who send their children to the Unicef tents ”don’t have the time to take care of their kids right now, as their top priority is to put a roof over their heads”, says Erry, an Indonesian teacher at the Bantul centre.
At first, the children hesitate to stay, wanting to be near their mothers, but eventually, ”they come alone. And then they ask if they can come again,” she says.
Outside, three young boys kick around a football, arguing about who is the best player in the world.
Francisco votes for star French forward Thierry Henry and Brazilian striker Ronaldo, while Tita says his favourite is ”Bambang Pamungkas, the best Indonesian football player”.
Tita says he ”has a good time” playing at the Unicef centre, explaining that he gets bored at his house, which is still standing but has no power.
In a sign that life may slowly be getting back to normal, he says his biggest worry is not being able to follow the World Cup, which begins later this week. — AFP
