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Khin San Win, 35, her husband and their 3-year-old son, Mg Myo Min Thant, are back in their village and staying with friends. The villagers have united to rebuild—one by one each day—their small houses made of leaf and bamboo that had shattered from the intensity of Cyclone Nargis as it ransacked the impoverished Irrawaddy Delta in southwestern Myanmar two weeks ago.
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The storm may be over but it's not gone. In a conversation with a UNICEF worker who helped deliver water purifying supplies to her remote village in Kawhmu Township in Yangon Division, Khin San Win recalled the nightmare and its impact on her only son:
"The small rack where we keep our Buddha image fell down. Before we knew what was happening, our house had collapsed. I held my son in my arms and ran to a nearby house. But the heavy wind flattened it. We ran to another house with a metal roof. The metal was making a loud noise-the wind was pulling off the metal sheets. We just ran in the dark in the heavy rain. My poor little boy was shaking with fear.
Then he stopped speaking or making any sound. He was in shock. We found a big house where there were many people like us. If they didn't open the door for us, we would surely have died. We couldn't run in this storm for long. I felt as if someone was holding me without mercy and shaking me. And it was extremely cold. There were so many people we were tight in that house. I wrapped my son in dry clothes from a neighbor and held him close to me for warmth.
My son is talking now but he hasn't recovered. He used to play and bathe happily in the rain, like all children here. Now he refuses to go out when it rains. When the thunder comes, he cries."
Establishing "child-friendly spaces"
To help children like Mg Myo Min Thant find a way to settle the storms that might still be raging in their minds after a natural disaster like the cyclone that upended the lives of more than a million and half people in Myanmar, UNICEF has this week started setting up child-friendly spaces in shelters and villages for displaced survivors.
Child-friendly spaces provide children with a secure place where they can play with other children, sing songs, do art activities and begin to understand their fears. It provides routine, supportive relationships and other crucial responses to restoring distressed children's well-being. Child-friendly spaces also can become makeshift schools while damaged structures are restored.
"The emotional health of children after such an intensely stressful event is an urgent concern. It is important for their well-being that they are provided with a hand to help in returning to normal life," said Ramesh Shrestha, UNICEF Representative in Myanmar. "We are moving as quickly as possible to set up more child-friendly spaces where they can find security and relief."
Win Naing, UNICEF