Stories from the Field
Family Child Care StoriesChildren Need Safe Places to Be
Stories Collected from the Field, November 7, 2005
* Alabama: GRCMA Early Childhood Directions, a CCR&R located in Mobile , is working with child care, families, social service and charitable organizations across state lines. Only a short distance away, Mobile is tied culturally and historically with the neighboring coastal communities in both New Orleans and Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Wendy McEarchern, the CCR&R director, is grateful to the Maryland child care community who sent a truckload of materials for GRCMA. These materials have been distributed to families and child care providers who are caring for children living with the heat and mosquitoes in damaged neighborhoods in Alabama and Mississippi . “We want the children to have a place to be cared for while families are rebuilding their homes, looking for new jobs, and standing in the interminable lines that getting help requires. The shelters that are housing families temporarily don't usually offer the best environment for children. But no one else is focusing on the children.”
FEMA and local Mobile Volunteers (a United Way program) called the GRCMA to ask for professional child care to care for the 700 plus homeless families. These families, mostly from Pascagoula , are living on a ship docked in Mobile Bay , Alabama . Another 600 families were scheduled to board the ship this past weekend. Wendy reports that FEMA and the Holiday cruise ship were desperate for professional child care help last week when they had 40 traumatized children packed into a 15 x15 foot room with no supplies or planned activities. These children are from all walks of life, and many have special needs that haven't been addressed. While FEMA was clear that child care needs are beyond what volunteers can handle, FEMA currently cannot use its funds for child care.
To answer the request for child care for these children, Wendy and the CCR&R staff went to work doing what CCR&Rs do best: locating and connecting services to improve the child care system. Wendy rallied staff, friends and volunteers to pick up equipment from child care centers closed by the storm. They then created age-appropriate centers in the largest space they could find on the ship--the bar. She contacted directors and staff from destroyed centers to create a daily schedule and activities. Wendy connected with Save the Children and other community charities to fund payment to professional staff from closed centers and to fund supplies for the new child care room. Last week approximately 50 children played in the “child care bar” every day and the numbers are expected to double quickly with new arrivals.
Wendy says the children's reaction to having a safe routine is dramatic. She reports their sad, worried faces have gradually changed into smiles and laughter. But she now worries about the preteens and teens who still are not engaged in activities. She worries about many families' abilities to meet their children's needs when they are depressed and feeling hopeless. She worries about large families cramped into cabins too small for strollers or toys. She worries about children with special needs who they cannot serve. She worries about the families just now arriving who have lived through a month of mud, mold and sewage. She worries about the children on two other ships who have no child care. She worries about who will staff the center when the boat leaves Mobile Bay to return to the flattened Mississippi shore. She worries about who will provide child care referrals for families in the Mobile community if they cannot replace the funds that pay their parent counselors.
Want to help? Contact psmith@naccrra.org or click here.
Stories Collected from the Field, September 28, 2005
- In Bayou La Batre, Alabama, FEMA is working in a local fishing village in full hazardous material (haz-met) gear to assess storm damage -- stepping through mud left by receding flood waters infiltrated with diesel fuel, unknown hazardous materials, sewage, and whatever else may have followed the flood surge into town. Six feet away, a dozen children play barefooted in the same mud, in the same clothes they have been wearing for a week, without the hazmet gear FEMA has judged to be critical for workers' health. These children need a safe place to be while their parents clean-up their homes, their neighborhoods and search for work.
- In Mobile, Alabama, community volunteers accidentally left a 2 year old child temporarily in their care, alone, in a van for several hours. The two year old child died. The situation is under investigation. However, it was clear that the child was unconscious when found and the University of South Alabama Women's and Children's Hospital was unable to revive her. A hospital spokesman said she died of heat related injuries. Overwhelmed, un-trained volunteers need professional child care providers to assure children's safety.
- In Mobile Bay, Alabama, FEMA has asked the local Resource & Referral Agency to supply and staff a child care center for evacuee children. Currently, more than 700 homeless families live with their children on the Holiday cruise ship docked in Mobile Bay , while their parents are bussed to Pascagoula to search for work or return to jobs. FEMA and the cruise ship say that they can't spend their funds on child care. The Resource & Referral Agency is desperately searching for funds to cover the costs of staff and materials. R&Rs are concerned that FEMA will return to what the agency did last week… sending the parents off in busses and leaving the children unattended or leaving massive numbers of children with only a handful of un-trained volunteers overwhelmed by their lack of experience and sheer numbers of children. Research after hurricane Andrew demonstrated that prolonged chaotic conditions resulted in high levels of post traumatic stress syndrome for children. Children need a normal routine provided by professional care to prevent future mental illness.
- In Bayou La Batre, Alabama, a church generously offered to let volunteers come in and take care of children for a temporary period during the day to enable parents to get their lives back together. Children play behind the church in contaminated mud left from receding flood water, in near swamp-like conditions breeding hordes of mosquitoes. The children are covered with massive numbers of mosquito bites, infection, and rashes that weaken the energy and resistance of vulnerable young children. Children need safe places to be to avoid the illnesses that loom as our most vulnerable citizens are left exposed.
- In Bayou La Batre, Alabama, two-thirds of the homes are uninhabitable. Families with children are doubled up in lean-tos -- loose boards, plywood, and tin providing minimal shelter from the steamy record heat; no running water; no electricity; sewage amok. Temporary child care facilities could help these families while their parents begin to rebuild their lives. Parents are reluctant to reach out for assistance, but the environment is just not safe for children.
