Maria’s Kit of Comfort book launch at our amazing local library with over 80 children and adults.
Author’s visit to Manchester Elementary School, about 500 students and teachers.
Workshop at Song and Story Fest at Camp Pine Lake, Iowa.
Recording of Maria’s Kit of Comfort for the On Earth Peace story read aloud project. Here is the link to the video posted on Youtube: https://youtu.be/Ra-r7gjrZXg
Author’s visit to Peace Patch Preschool to read the story.
Children’s Disaster Services deployment to Fort Myers, Florida, following hurricane Ian – It was once again amazing to see this work in action. We had a team of 5 certified caregivers providing care for children following the disaster that left many families homeless and some with loss of loved ones. The children expressed their feelings and stories through their play. One boy commented on the picture he drew (below), “It’s my whole city. It’s sad because my whole city got blowed away.”
I am grateful for these opportunities and more coming in 2023!
I was grateful for the opportunity to care for children on the base at Fort Bliss, TX/NM and serve families who fled Afghanistan at the end of the war, August 2021. This volunteer effort was a collaboration between Save the Children, Children’s Disaster Services, Bruderhof, Latter Day Saints, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Our teams served in 4 different humanitarian tents and offered morning and afternoon play sessions for infants, toddlers, and older children. We often reached the capacity of 80 people in these tents. While it was busy and usually loud, not only from children’s voices but also the air conditioning system, we were able to build precious relationships of welcome for these children and the parents who accompanied them. I also served as part of the training team to work with staff who would stay after our teams had left to return home, 2 ½ months after this response began.
Impressions from the experience –
The Afghan people were always referred to as “guests”. They were kind and helpful, eager to learn and share, playful, tired, anxious, and full of hope. Their bright smiles were truly heartwarming and seemed full of genuine connection. We also shared tears. So many tender experiences.
We learned words in Farsi/Dari and Pashto. The children loved seeing the cheat sheets we carried around. These young teachers eagerly answered all of our language questions. One little girl was so proud that she could speak 5 languages – Farsi, Pashto, English, Hindi, Spanish!
The children were always giving us gifts – yarn and bead bracelets, pipe cleaner rings and head bands, tissue paper hair bows, pictures they drew. When we tried to say they could keep them, they handed them back and said, “No, you!”
The children in the camp recognized our team as we walked through to our cars and tents. They waved with smiles, high fives, fist bumps, and sometimes hugs.
The land on the base was arid and dusty, with sand and stones making up the roads and paths. We were told that some children, especially early on, didn’t realize they were in a different country because of similarities with Afghanistan.
The children and parents often drew pictures of the Afghan flag and the U.S. flag as an expression of connection. We saw these pictures over and over in all the tents.
Favorite toys included toy airplanes, balls/soccer, bubble play, kitchen play, drawing, and any type of craft. One afternoon I spent at least an hour with several boys playing in the toy kitchen. One of the boys who made me a stir fry of toy food (hot peppers, greens, tomato, carrots) said he liked to cook in Afghanistan.
Many families were large. Both mothers and fathers seemed so pleased to tell us which children were theirs. We heard of families who were separated from their own children during the evacuation and many stories of separation from grandparents. So much sadness and anxiety over these losses.
Many people expressed gratitude to us. After even a few moments of interaction, we would often get comments like, “You are so nice,” or “Thank you very much.”
One father played with me and his little girl. He said, “I told her you were her teacher.” She said, “No, my grandma.”
I showed one little boy how to draw on the chalkboard wall. He made a mark, looked at me, and giggled. Over and over, he would make a mark and then burst into giggles. A new experience – such joy!
The day we started the training for the transition, a young man with USCCB who had been in the training session, was a part of the infant toddler care team that day. At the end of his shift he said, “It was good to be in the training in the morning, and come in here and practice what we learned.”
Each person on our team got at least one opportunity to be in the play space in the tent where families who were leaving the base gathered for their orientation to the outside world. It was really special to see families whom we had worked with come through this tent. They were eager to leave the base, but also had so many questions about their new homes, especially if they weren’t meeting up with friends and family.
The hope of all of us who worked with these families is that they will find welcome and kindness wherever they go.
Maria’s Kit of Comfort not only survived the production process during the pandemic, we think it will be an important resource for children to be able to express their feelings through creative play. Children have experienced the stress and anxiety of the last 2 years, whether or not they suffered other disasters or traumas on top of the shared covid experience. While the setting for Maria’s book is a children’s play center following disaster, it could also be your home or school or park or library. So, gather some play materials, read the book with a child, and let them choose how they would like to express their feelings and stories through their play.
How this happened – When my friend David asked me if I knew of someone who might want to work with him on a story of the Kit of Comfort, envisioned and created by his wife Karen in 1979, I was hesitant at first. The Kit of Comfort is a child care center in a suitcase that for over 40 years has been taken to disaster sites along with trained, compassionate caregivers of Children’s Disaster Services (CDS). I wasn’t sure there were words that could capture the depth of meaning of the work of the thousands of volunteers who have supported children in the most dire of circumstances. My confidence grew as the words on my computer screen seemed to take on a life of their own, communicating the significance of playful experiences that can lead to healing. Brethren Press agreed to publish the book – CDS is a well-established and beloved program of the Church of the Brethren. It’s never easy to go from the imagining stage of any book to actual realization of a finished product. This journey through the process hit an unanticipated hurdle when covid struck. How could any press, especially a small press, be able to predict what would happen to the book market and budgets and changes in media? We are excited that the book is now available for pre-order.
We’ve been having kids’ days once a week each summer. Living next to a river affords all kinds of opportunities for exploring nature.
The 5-year-old found crayfish and mussels and rocks and dragonflies. It made my heart smile when he said, “There’s lots of mysteries in this river.”
Here are some great quotes from Richard Louv’s book, The Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.
“Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature.”
“We have such a brief opportunity to pass on to our children our love for this Earth, and to tell our stories. These are the moments when the world is made whole.”
“Time in nature is not leisure time; it’s an essential investment in our children’s health.”
“Nature is often overlooked as a healing balm for the emotional hardships in a child’s life.”
“Can we teach children to look at a flower and see all the things it represents: beauty, the health of an ecosystem, and the potential for healing?”
