Mothers Are the Same All Over the World

On 24 th of April 2004, IBC has provided a set of supplies for the pregnant women and the new born babies and infants registered at Bam Health Center . This small project has its touching story and a “different” value, as targeting the most vulnerable individuals in the earthquake affected area of Bam.

The representative of Bam Health Center , Mrs. Bahadori, is a brave lady who came back in Bam immediately after the earthquake and dedicated herself to help the women and the children who were the most affected and the most hopeless in the dramatic story of Bam. Mrs. Bahadori is a young person who lost all her family during the earthquake, but never lost her hope in humanity, committing her self to help the people of Bam to recover from the huge sadness, smiling all the time, giving strength to all the people she gets in contact with and working hard for getting the support needed, in a period when, due to the trauma, hundreds of people closed their souls inside themselves, refusing to return to the “new” life.

IBC and its Irish donor, Trocaire, were very impressed by Mrs. Bahadori's efforts and touched by the situation of pregnant women resisting with difficulty in the ad hoc tent – hospitals in Bam, where the heat and the dust makes the life more difficult than it already is. Bam continues to live and every day there are new little souls coming into the world, and new mothers have to think how to take care better of their babies, in the conditions where they lost everything during the earthquake, even the planned future for their babies…

Therefore, as a small sign of light, IBC provided all the pregnant women and the new mothers, for their little babies, with cloths and different types of hygiene supplies, and managed to blossom maybe just a little smile on their faces.

She is Sarah and he is Mehdi, two children from the Turkish container camp Isfahan 2 in Bam, two different expressions and the same faith.

When you go in the camps established around in the city of Bam , the first to welcome you in the site are certainly the children. Some of them extremely loud and naughty and some of them are just looking at you without words. They play in the dust and invent games using empty boxes.

There are many children who suddenly and sadly found themselves in a totally strange environment, without their beloved around and forced to look straight in the cold eyes of the reality, getting from their rooms to an uncomfortable tent to be shared with many others, without mothers' hands around or just a too sad mother who need herself a hand to help her out from all this.

Due to the violent trauma they lived, there are children who refuse to talk or to smile and when you talk with them, they look at you and just do mechanically what they are told. They do not react to any game or any play the children are involved inn. Neither the toys nor the colors do say much to them it seems… Sometimes, a doll or a teddy bear is hold by a leg or just impersonal embraced, as a “memory” which lost its sense and is carried around the dusty roads of the camp…

In the Children's Centers established by IBC, the clinical psychologists and the teachers try throughout different therapies to get them “back” to their childhood, but the psychology of each child responds differently to music, art, drama or participation therapies… The tremendous earthquake memories which trembles their night dreams and which are hided deep in their little hearts, are one by one get out and the children are thought how to get stronger and confident…

It is a reality the fact that we may not be able to get for them back their past, their lost families or their warm homes, but we can be there to help them grow strong and give a sense to their future.

Teaching How to Help

IBC has established 8 Children's Social Centers in Bam, in the Turkish container camps Isfahan1, Isfahan2, Qom1, Qom2 and Shehrdari / Belediye, where 2 clinical psychologists and 16 teachers are working. The psycho-social intervention activity was prepared by training for trainers workshop held between 27 th and 28 th of April in the camp Isfahan1 where 22 candidate teachers participate.

The clinical psychologist Ferdin Shadab headed sessions of child psychology and psycho-social intervention theory and practically involved the attendants in role play and trauma fight therapy samples.

The earthquake in Bam didn't select its victims and from the children to elders, from rich to the poor, changed in the same way the lives of the people in Bam. The role of change belongs to the ones trained to provide rehabilitation, who are supposed to canalize the live of the children on a healthy track.

As well as the others, the teachers lost their families and saw their houses crashing in the dust too. During the training workshop, the teachers where put in the place of the children and themselves passing through a short therapy session. When stories with sequences about the dramatic night started to be told, many of the young teacher candidates filled their eyes with tears and trembled in cry.

The dimension of the trauma is difficult to be measured sometimes and has its different ways of manifestation, but however, the most important thing is to start as soon as possible with professional help and continuous survey to be conducted.