Mercy Corps Responds to American Tragedy

Mercy Corps International
Monday, 8 October 2001

Comfort for Kids Program Reaches Children in Underserved Communities; Comfort Kits Being Distributed to Children in New York City

In response to the tragic events of September 11, Mercy Corps has launched an intensive effort to aid families who might otherwise be overlooked by counseling and recovery efforts. Mercy Corps' Comfort for Kids program aims at helping children from immigrant, refugee and low-income families impacted by the tragedy. Working with nonprofit and corporate partners, Mercy Corps is responding with support and materials on helping children cope with fear, grief, trauma, and promoting healing and tolerance.

Our program philosophy - based on 22 years of experience in relief and development assistance - is to address long-term needs of underserved groups. Refugee, immigrant and low-income communities are especially vulnerable in the wake of the September 11th events due to language barriers, a fear or suspicion of government agencies, lack of insurance or access to social services, and economic loss due to business closures.

The Comfort for Kids Program

Comfort for Kids is geared to the needs of families and children. Highlights of the program include:

- Producing a special booklet called What Happened to the World? Helping Children Cope with Trauma. The booklet provides guidance on helping children process fear, grief, and trauma and promoting healing and tolerance. It is being distributed to parents, teachers, and other child care providers in the aftermath of this disaster.

- Hosting Information Exchanges and Training Sessions with diverse audiences to help families cope with fear, grief and trauma, and to promote tolerance and healing. A special video was produced for trainings with production services donated by Portland-based Will Vinton Studios.

- Training sessions have been attended by psychologists, facilitators and after-school program administrators from community groups such as the Asociacion Tepeyac, representing more than 40 Latino community organizations, and the Hispanic Federation of New York City, an umbrella organization for 70 Hispanic groups that provide childcare, mental health and homeless services, and after-school programs for youth. Others involved include Korean-American community groups, and the Chinese-Christian Herald Crusade, which represents a network of over 100 Chinese Christian churches in the greater New York City area.

- Providing Comfort Kits to children as a tangible symbol of caring and compassion. Kits include flashlights, art supplies, music and stuffed animals - items that help children feel safe and encourage them to express their emotions. Putumayo world music company is supplying its World Playground 2 compilation for the kits. This CD includes kid-friendly songs by artists from 12 countries and with lyrics about each country. The kits will also include the What Happened to the World? booklet.

A Mercy Corps team was immediately dispatched to New York City after the terrorist attacks and quickly established the Comfort for Kids partnership. We are pleased to have found these partners that share our values and are contributing vital expertise to the effort: Bright Horizons Family Solutions; J.P. Morgan Chase & Co; and The Dougy Center for Grieving Children and Families.

Local Partner Outreach

Mercy Corps' initial goal is to reach 10,000 families with Comfort Kits, resource materials, and exposure to training sessions. Local partner organizations that Mercy Corps works with are asked to help in the following ways:

- Identify families within their community that need help most.

- Act as a connector to the community by distributing educational materials - such as books and videos -- focused on fear, grief, trauma and the promotion of healing and tolerance.

- Deploy qualified staff personnel from their organization to receive training sessions to supplement the resource materials and thereby ensure the program reaches a grassroots audience.

- Post information on their website to provide national and international access to the resource materials.

- Ensure the continuity of the program past the initial weeks and months. Grieving and healing are long-term processes and Mercy Corps and its partners are committed to a response that meets needs over time.

For more information, or to contact Mercy Corps International, see their website at: www.mercycorps.org