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Hygiene Kits Helping Katrina's Kids Rebound

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Church World Service Grant from German Agency Diakonie and Corporate Donor Helping Repair, Re-equip Region's Battered Schools

ABBEVILLE, LA -- Kids from Abbeville, Louisiana's Forked Island/E. Broussard School have a little more to smile about these days.

They’re not back in their old school building yet--it was so badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina that it may not reopen until August--and they have now moved into their second temporary school since the beginning of the school year.

But this temporary school is not just a lot closer to home, it also has some treats and supplies provided especially for these students.

Driving to the distant interim school was hard on the kids says Forked Island/E. Broussard Principal Chris St. Romain. "Some kids were getting on the school bus at 6:15 in the morning, getting home after 6 o'clock in the evening, putting in a 12-hour day. That’s not good for little kids."

Last month, though, on the very day the elementary and middle school classes moved into the local community building that now is their new interim school, the faculty staged a celebration at which all the elementary students received kits filled with crayons, drawing paper, pads, and other supplies from humanitarian agency Church World Service.

And that wasn't the end of the gifts.

The CWS "Gift of the Heart" School Kits were part of a $110,000 Church World Service donation of supplies to badly damaged schools in Louisiana and Mississippi. They accompanied a $600,000 grant received by Church World Service, designated for distribution to storm-damaged schools for repairs and replacement equipment. The grant was made possible by German humanitarian agency Diakonie, a CWS partner, and a large transnational corporate donor.

Abbeville's Forked Island/E. Broussard School, one of hundreds across the Gulf Coast that have been getting by, in large part, with donated funds and materials, now also has money to purchase computers and other badly needed equipment.

St. Romain says most of the students are not from affluent neighborhoods, with more than half of them qualifying for free lunches even before the storm hit. So, he points out, "even five months after Katrina," a colorful bag filled with school supplies is still a practical and welcome treat

On top of six months of hardships and educational making-do, St. Romain says the school's staff and students have had to deal with the psychological and material losses that engulfed the region.

"Early on, we had counselors and group sessions for the students. Now, everybody's adjusted quite well," he reports, even though "half of our teachers and staff" lost their homes in the storm. "The school kits from Church World Service mean a lot to our kids' sense of self-esteem."

At the Resurrection Middle High School in Pascagoula, Mississippi, faculty member Miranda Moore says the kids are recovering. "They're surprisingly elastic. We aren't seeing the emotionalism that we saw at first. We let them talk at first. Some had no damage to their homes, some lost everything. The children have been very caring toward each other, although some students are still acting out in ways that they never did in the past."

Moore adds that the school staff is "very proud" of the children. "Their faith helped them be resilient and recover."

In schools across the battered region, students have lost friends and experienced an influx of new children trickling in and enrolling well past the beginning of school. As the schools opened, teachers reported wondering, when students did not show up, if they and their parents were safe.

Roma Mitchell of Watkins Elementary School in Lake Charles, Louisiana--another school that received School and Health Kits from Church World Service--said, "We prepared our students, so that when they saw all the new kids enrolling because their own schools were unusable, they understood and welcomed them." She says, "Kids seem to bounce back quicker than adults."

But some still struggle.

A teacher preparing to distribute a shipment of Church World Service kits to children at one Mississippi school, said that nearly six months after the hurricanes one young student was still wetting her pants every day.

Artwork is a classic tool children use to communicate and resolve traumatic situations. In the Pascagoula school district, which also received a cash grant and kits for students, Communications Director Debbie Anglin says she helped get area elementary school students to produce a "Neighbor Helping Neighbor" mural for a United Way luncheon.

"The children's drawing were so compelling, with scenes of people being rescued out of trees, or pictures of the MREs (meals ready to eat) that we survived on for weeks," she said. But one drawing really stood out: "A picture of a boy and a girl standing on top of a restaurant building with the words 'Thank you' written above the boy's head."

Anglin said she inquired and found out that the artist--the little boy in the drawing-- and his family rode out the storm in the family's restaurant. "When the 25-foot storm surge began making its way inland, the restaurant started to fill with water. The parents placed the children on top of the industrial stove to keep them above the water," Anglin said.

When the stove began to float in the rising water the boy slid off and was pushed underwater by a floating refrigerator. Anglin says "His sister dove into the water and pushed the refrigerator off of him, dragging him to safety. The 'thank you' in the mural is the little boy thanking his sister for saving his life."

Stephanie Schepens teaches gifted children at Orange Grove Elementary School in Gulfport, Mississippi, which also received a cash grant from the CWS-Diakonie funds, CWS "Gift of the Heart" School Kits, and blankets. According to Schepens, nearly all the students come from low-income families and the gifts were much appreciated.

"To see things new and shiny means so much to them. The school supplies and blankets were like the Christmas some of them never had this year."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/284081/114122480648.htm