Situation Report: American Samoa. Day 3.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
by Tim Serban
Situation Report: American Samoa
American Red Cross volunteer Tim Serban was deployed to American Samoa Friday, October 2 as member of the National Red Cross Response Team. Tim is the Director of Mission Integration and Spiritual Care with Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, WA and has been a volunteer with Red Cross since 1999. His first volunteer training with the Red Cross was in Critical Incident Stress Debriefing. Tim is thumb-typing these reports and sending them home using his iPod mobile device--when connections are available.
Thanks to Tim's home Chapter in Washington State for sharing these reports with us here in Arizona.
Notes From: Tim Serban American Red Cross Spiritual Care Response Team (SRT) Lead Disaster Relief Operation (DRO) 560-Am. Samoa
DAY 3: Monday 10/5/09
Today began at 6 a.m. as we were requested to partner with Key DOH psych leaders to start at two schools, one elementary academy and one vocational high school. It (school) starts today and many emotions of the teachers and students for the first day back.
300 students at an elementary school and one colleague covered this location; I covered support to 400 students at the high school through the morning. They had an assembly and I was the presenter on handling the grief, stress and emotional aftershocks of a disaster. The students were open, honest and asked deep questions. Many were personally impacted and those who lost a family member came up to me directly to process their grief.
Following the assembly at the high school I went back to the elementary school and was invited into a 6 grade class who had lost their classmate. They asked open questions about their fears, their concerns and their hopes for the family of their lost classmate. They decorated pictures and outlined the depth of this loss and how they experienced the shock of the earthquake and tsunami.
They will be making a site visit with their classmates and teacher, to the site where she (their classmate) was swept away and they will sing songs and leave flowers in hopes that one day her body will be found. Such depth and incredible honesty with what they need in order to grieve, is equivalent to adults.
The rest of the day was spent processing with teachers. Even the 5-year-olds drew amazing pictures of their face after the tsunami and bird's nest grief assessments. The faces: half were smiles and the others were sad. When asked, the sad (faces) were Mad at the ocean and happy faces were Happy that their homes were safe.
Still unpacking, next plan for coming day, possibly based at LBJ hospital to assess support needed for families at the morgue operations.
First priority, those in greatest need.
Tim Serban, SRT lead DRO 560 Samoa
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