report
According to the UN, around 10,000 children were affected by the catastrophic magnitude of the earthquake in Morocco. Many are traumatized. A big challenge for helpers.
At first it’s a somewhat strange sight: In the village of Asni at the foot of the Atlas Mountains, the Moroccan military has set up a highly professional field hospital: including an air-conditioned operating tent, a laboratory for on-site analyzes – and a trampoline on which children can run around.
The United Nations estimates that around 300,000 people are affected by the consequences of the severe earthquake, including around 100,000 children. Many were injured – physically but also mentally. Some of them are severely traumatized.
The trampoline is a first aid measure, says Katharina Ebel, program manager for the aid organization SOS Children’s Villages. “A trampoline in the field hospital is actually one of the best things the military could come up with,” she says. The children need “a feeling of normality, of fun again.” Ebel emphasizes: “It’s not forbidden to have fun, even if a catastrophe has happened. That gives you security.”
More than 30 children without parents
Ebel had actually flown to Marrakesh to vacation. After the earthquake, she spontaneously helped her colleagues with emergency aid on site. Your organization runs five SOS Children’s Villages, several youth residential communities and family support programs in Morocco.
The Moroccan government has now informed her organization that so far there are 32 children who have lost their parents and now urgently need a new home, Ebel continued: “The children should be taken in by us in the two children’s villages in Agadir and Marrakech There you will receive both medical and, of course, psychological care.”
Tents as a child’s wish
A visit to the village of Tansgharte in the Atlas Mountains, the epicenter of the quake. Women cook in the open air for the entire village with what little they have left. During an interview, a little boy suddenly plucks it ARD reporter on the arm. He really wants to say something and then won’t stop. It’s clear that the ten-year-old has to get everything off his chest:
My name is Abdel Razak from Tansghrarte village. I ask the state to send us tents. We ran into the street at night and couldn’t see anything. There are no tents. Because the tents that were in the village of Asni are all gone. We are asking the state to provide tents for the people here because they have brought us food but we don’t have tents to sleep in.
The boy speaks quickly, as if under pressure, as if he didn’t want to waste any time. The adults nod, the boy should speak:
What are we afraid of? If it’s going to rain, what do we do? We only have one big tent. When people see even a little wind coming up, they are afraid that it is another earthquake. In the evenings we shiver from the cold.”
Don’t go to school out of fear
Local aid organizations from all over the country are bringing food, medicine, tents and blankets to the mountains. Even if they actually have nothing to do with emergency aid. The Tildat organization, based in the city of Chichaoua, west of Marrakech, normally advocates for women’s equality. She is now organizing food stalls in around 30 douars – small clusters of houses in the crisis area where hardly any supplies have arrived so far.
The head of Tildat, Said Kouias, is already thinking about the future. He fears that even more children than before could drop out of school. Even in communities where the earthquake did not cause any serious damage, many children refused to go to school. Because they are still afraid, says Kouias.
Kouias said his organization works with educational unions and government institutions: “We are planning a program to train teachers with the help of psychologists. The teachers should provide support on site and maintain contact with students and their families.” The program should start in the next few days. “We are also considering organizing large tents as classrooms and sleeping rooms for the school children. Especially for girls, to protect them from underage marriages,” says the Tildat leader.
Little Abdel Razak is also hoping for a tent like this in the village of Tansgharte. And in the Atlas Mountains there are many, many more children.