A Safe Place
How Disaster Relief and Education Go Hand-in-Hand
September 25, 2018
Walking onto Beth Knight’s property one could see that her home sustained immense damage from the storms. Debris was scattered all around and below her home; sliding glass doors were ripped from their hinges and the wooden deck was catapulted down into her yard. Though hurricanes Irma and Maria had passed through one year ago, the damage still remained. Beth Knight continued to live on her property, this was her home.
“You have no control. There is no control when something that massive comes your way. So all you can do is try to stay safe, not do anything ridiculous and just put yourself in a mental state where it is what it is… There is nothing that you can do to change a natural disaster.”
Beth Knight focused her energy on something that she believed was more important to her than her own affairs; her students. Just a couple weeks after Maria, Beth Knight, the principal of the Gifft Hill lower campus, reopened the Gift Hill School. The school is composed of two separate campuses. The upper campus housing grades 6-12 and the lower campus housing grades Pre-K-5. Due to the significant damage the upper campus endured, all grades were relocated to the lower campus until December when grades 6-12 returned to the upper campus. “I learned a lot from that experience, those kids were a blessing to me. Because for 7-8 hours a day, I couldn’t just focus on what happened to me.”
“We started every morning in the great room as a group, first just holding hands together and just assuring everybody that we are going to make it through this.”
People often forget that young children are sometimes incapable of expressing how they feel in situations that are very new to them and with that they must find creative ways to help them process. The students and staff participated in many activities in hopes to encourage the students to talk about their experience in order to learn, understand, and cope with what has happened. Aside from their sing-a-longs, the whole school painted a mural giving every student the opportunity to contribute their own personal touch.
A tool that proved to be very helpful for the younger children was a coloring book made by the community foundation called ‘Iggy the Iguana’. The coloring book described an Iguana that was caught up in the storm and the different obstacles it faced and how it felt during this time. “I did it with these little kids and we worked [through] those 3 months just a page or two a day, and it was just an amazing thing to hear them open up about what had happened in their lives. So it was very cathartic, we went through it together. Step by step; how we felt.”
Pages from Iggy the Iguana coloring book.
Since Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the schools on St. John have slowly begun repairs as they begin to recreate the safe place they once had for the children. All Hands and Hearts jumped at the opportunity to help the Kidz First Daycare. “The walls were covered in dirt from the rain and debris that had blown in, as well as tiles that were coming up off the floor from water damage,” explained Cole Riffe, one of the Site supervisors in training, as he assessed the site.
Over several weeks All Hands and Hearts worked diligently to get daycare operational. “We are the only daycare left on St. John. All the others have closed down and and can’t reopen. With the upcoming school year we will be the only daycare caring for children below Pre-K,” explained Kay Callwood, one of the head administrators. After cleaning out the daycare, painting the entire inside, and laying brand new tile, All Hands and Hearts is currently in the process of making the last few cosmetic touches. Upon completion, All Hands and Hearts will assist with cleaning and moving daycare supplies back into the facility so that they can reopen soon after.
Aside from All Hands and Hearts initial response work and following recovery work, one of our ongoing goals is to help renew the community we help, ensuring that younger generations have a safe place to learn and grow into successful members of society. We are grateful to be able to help Kidz First Daycare recover from the storm and our up and coming work on Gifft Hill School.
FOOTNOTES
Story and Photos by Jessica E. Prinsloo for All Hands and Hearts.
St. John, USVI
