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A mobile counselling unit visited schools in tsunami-hit communities to identify children in need of assistance and therapy.
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The counsellors played games with the children.
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Children could play and watch cartoons inside the mini-van.
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Those in need of therapy did not want to play or take part in activities.
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The counsellors played with and supported 2,500 children.
One 12 year-old girl who lost her mother and father to the tsunami refused to let go. When she moved in with relatives, she brought her parents' pillows and the bed sheets they slept on, refusing to let anyone launder them. She stopped going to school. The bedding became filthy.
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Then a Plan-sponsored mobile counselling unit learned of her troubles and went to her home, teaching her to grieve and release the pain of her loss through art and drawing. With the assistance of the Childline Caravan counsellors, she found the will to return to school and engage in life again.
Driving to meet children in need
Childline Caravan, established six months after the December 2004 tsunami, purchased three mini-vans, which were painted by children and adults in a bright collage of child-friendly colours. Thai artists put the finishing touches on the mobile counselling vans.
With three counsellors per mini-van, the Childline Caravan visited 28 schools and two childcare centres in three provinces. During their five-day trips, the counsellors, wearing bright red and yellow t-shirts, engaged the children in art therapy, dance and drama to help them heal.
"It's a very useful service for us. It gives the children confidence in speaking, playing, singing, and they like getting the chance to express themselves," said Rakkiat Kawpongpaiboon, a teacher at a school that served as a temporary shelter in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami.
Among the thousands of children they met with, Childline counsellors were able to identify 223 children with psychosocial problems, 162 of whom were referred to other agencies for appropriate treatment. One of the difficulties in finding those in need was the stigma associated with seeking counselling.
"Seeing a therapist was considered bad at that time, and people were not so open. We devised a strategy to identify cases, and to provide therapy without singling them out. They stood out straight away – they don't take part in activities, they keep quiet, they don't say anything," said Ilya Smirnoff, the executive director of the Childline Caravan project.
The logistics of bringing mass numbers of children to counsellors would have been impossible, so Childline did the opposite. "To bring the professionals on the ground to where the kids were – it was effective and we were able to reach incredible numbers of kids. In just the first year, we were able to provide support to 2,500 kids," Smirnoff said.
Helping children with health care, education
The organisation also ran a Childline phone counselling service, which fielded hundreds of calls from children looking for scholarships to avoid having to drop out of school, or to express worries about family finances and problems at home. Childline helped 61 children find scholarships and provided counselling support to numerous other children in need.
With support from Plan, Childline assisted children with health care, education and legal matters. Several children from the Moken ethnic minority group of the southern coastal region were not going to school, so Childline spoke to parents of the importance of education.
Many children and families lost their birth certificates and identification cards in the tsunami – and some, like the Moken, never had paperwork to begin with. Childline helped them navigate the lengthy process to regain their identity documents so that they would have access to public healthcare and schools.
