Share Your Feelings About the Earthquake With Children

Share Your Feelings About the Earthquake with Children Sabri Ülker Vakfı Provides Support to Children Affected by the Earthquake Associate Professor Dr. Serhat Nasıroğlu emphasized the importance of communicating with children affected by the earthquake in a transparent and non-frightening manner about emotions and thoughts, and underscored the therapeutic effect of children creating new memories through activities such as drawing and writing about lost family members. Acting on this, Sabri Ülker Vakfı sent toys and activity materials to support the recovery processes of unaccompanied children placed under protection by the T.C. Ministry of Family and Social Services. In the process of children affected by the earthquake that occurred in Kahramanmaraş and was felt in 10 provinces readapting to life, the communication and guidance that adults establish with children is of paramount importance. Associate Professor Dr. Serhat Nasıroğlu, Head of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine and Head of the Trauma Commission of the Turkish Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, notes that post-traumatic stress disorder is observed in children who lost loved ones or experienced the earthquake, and stressed that in this process, children encounter consequences such as regressive developmental behavior, attention disorders, and negative impacts on academic performance.  

"Share Your Feelings About the Earthquake with Children"

  Associate Professor Dr. Serhat Nasıroğlu, noting that children who experienced the earthquake may hesitate to express their emotions, thoughts and fears, points out that some families suppress their feelings in order not to show sadness and worry in front of their children, but that this often proves ineffective. Serhat Nasıroğlu summarizes the conversations that can be conducted during this period as follows: "It is beneficial to sit down with your child and discuss what you think about the event. Are you scared, angry, worried? Discuss these feelings with your child in a transparent but non-frightening manner. After the conversation, give your child the opportunity to share their own feelings. What happened during the earthquake, what did they feel at that moment? Allow the child to share with you all the emotions and thoughts they experienced throughout this process. When telling children about our feelings, it is important that we convey that this is not a bad thing, and that feelings like anger, fear and worry are very natural reactions in events like earthquakes," he said.

"New Memories Should Be Created Through Drawing and Writing Activities"

Addressing what can be done to help children who lost family members or loved ones cope with trauma, Nasıroğlu states: "Some individuals could not take anything from their homes. All objects containing memories of the past remained outside. For example, you lost your father and you don't have a single photograph of him. It is truly a difficult period. One of the things that can be done to cope with this process is to create new memories. A child given a crayon can be asked to write or draw a memory with their father. Children who are literate can be asked to write a farewell letter to the parent or loved one they lost in the earthquake, or to write their most beautiful memory with them. During this process, destroying or suppressing memories is not beneficial. Instead, when we have no objects related to our memories, we start producing new objects," he said.

2,000 Activity Boxes for Unaccompanied Children

Recognizing that activities such as drawing, writing and playing support children's post-traumatic recovery processes, Sabri Ülker Vakfı sent activity kits consisting of materials to the T.C. Ministry of Family and Social Services to be delivered to children who lost their families in the earthquake. Sabri Ülker Vakfı delivered activity materials consisting of teddy bears, coloring books, colored pencils, face paint and modeling clay sets, hand books and earthquake-special biscuits to be delivered to 2,000 unaccompanied children placed under protection. This initiative by Sabri Ülker Vakfı will, under the ministry's guidance, cover all unaccompanied children affected by the earthquake in the coming period.