Tragedy in Christchurch - support ideas for you.

Christchurch has just experienced another major earthquake - more devastating than the last back in Sept.  Many parents were at work and children in care and at school.  The thoughts of everyone around NZ are with you!!!   Members within our ChildForum office team live in Christchurch and have friends and family and we know, because we are feeling too, that its emotionally very very difficult. 

What to do?  Stay close with your child (children) over the coming days, weeks/months.  Keep your child with the family if you have to return to work.  Love and the security of love is very important at this time. 

Reassure, cuddle, read stories, play games, distract in what ever ways work for your child and eat lots of ice cream and food from your freezer if you have had a loss of electricity. 

Try not to let very young children see the images of devastation and grief on television/radio/newspaper and around you,  or hear too much of your conversation with other adults & older children about this.  Older children will want to know more and will cope better if they are helped to process the information through clear explanations and time to discuss. 

Are you an early childhood teacher or home-based educator/caregiver?  Personally contact your families, see how they are and visit if you can.  Personal contact means a lot.  Many families will have experienced loss - loss of someone they love, loss of their home, or loss of life as they have known it.

Take good care of yourself.  Get out of the city for a break, spend some time at the beach, or find a way that works for you to help to grieve and handle the huge stress.

Are you an early childhood service manager or owner?  Encourage your staff to stay at home with their families, check your insurance policy for coverage of fees during forced closure and natural disasters.  Support your staff, continue paying their wages, visit and check on each other (see a link below to an article published by the Skylight Trust with information for employers).  Government funding will continue for all licensed ECE services in the Christchurch City, Waimakariri District and Selwyn District for any days closed between 22 February and 8 March 2011 inclusive; but to claim emergency funding you must advise your local Ministry of Education office the days your service was closed and why.   The Ministry call centre phone number is Phone 0800 225 580. 

Know and undestand and encourage families when your service does reopen to stay and play, have a cup of tea, phone and talk with their child during the day, and help families network for mutual support.   Find support yourself - get on the phone to other service managers and owners (even if you have never been in contact with your 'competition' down the road) - meet and chat and help each other through this. 

Click here for an article we published after the first earthquake in Sept as depending upon your personal situation there may be ideas and tips you can take from it to help.

Should you evacuate your family from the city? 
Should you send your child to stay with someone else?
Should you temporarily leave your child in a different childcare or ECE sevice?
For a summary of research on the efffects of evacuation on young children and what parents, educators and early childhood services should know to reduce long-term psychological harm click here  ...

The Skylight Trust provide helpful articles on "when you're grieving"  and "when staff are grieving information for employers and managers"