Fort McMurray Fire Emergency Response, the importance of a CFS and YFS
A very common reaction when talking about CFS and YFS in an emergency response, is what are they or what does it stand for?
CFS stands for Child Friendly Space and YFS stands for Youth Friendly Space. Before having the opportunity to work with Save the Children and its humanitarian response team in Edmonton and Calgary, I had no idea these existed, and much less the importance of them in an emergency situation.
Now lets put ourselves for a few seconds in the shoes of an evacuee. A disaster just occurred in town, with little or no time at all to react or take many belongings. You are scared with no idea as to what will happen, or where exactly you are going. Did all your extended family and friends get out on time?
All of the sudden the world that you know and the world of your family and children has been taken away or disrupted. The social support system you had and that of your children has also been taken away or been disrupted. You have very little clothing, food, essentials or shoes for your family. As a responsible guardian or adult, your level of stress has gone up. You are now put in one big room to share with all these people you don't know anything about. You now tend to increase your level of alertness, as there are no walls to protect you or your family. On the other hand you don't know if you have a place to go back to. All your work and material possessions or savings might be gone, or could be damaged. What about insurance? you are also uncertain as to how long you will be in this situation. Will you have a job when you get back? or maybe you an all your family are still in shock because you had to drive through the fire to survive or maybe you are holding back your emotions to seem strong in front of your family, friends or children. These are just some of the thoughts, emotions, and feelings an evacuee might experience.
In a crisis situation, you are displaced and put in a shelter with thousands of other people, sharing the space. All of the sudden children do not have the physical walls and structure that protect them on a daily basis. They also don't have their social network of people that help keep them safe from harm and from others. Their knowledge of how to keep themselves safe still exists, however as they learnt it in a specific environment, many children might not know how to transfer that knowledge to a new environment. Children are very perceptive to all these emotions and behaviours that happen around them, including the stress that the parents might feel. In cases of emergency, some children can show signs of distress, depending on their experience, many can have physical, behavioural, emotional, or cognitive symptoms or reactions to an specific event. Such as disturbed sleep, bed wetting, fatigue, loss of interest in normal activities, regression of skills/behaviour, stop speaking, overly clingy, fear, sadness, guilt, anger, anxiety, flashbacks, nightmares, poor concentration etc. If we put ourselves in the shoes of the child, the fact that you are having these types of reactions without knowing why you are reacting the way you are, can be scary too. The fact that maybe your parents or a family member is going back to the place where they saw the fire coming or danger might be scary; but also, seeing your parents scared might also be scary. This is why, at all stages of a crisis situation, children are particularly vulnerable to neglect, exploitation or other types of harm. This is also why there is a need for a CFS and YFS in emergency situations.
A child or youth friendly space are safe spaces where communities create nurturing environments in which children can access free and structured play, recreation, leisure and learning activities. Some site can provide educational and psycho social support and other activities that restore a sense of normality and continuity.
As a volunteer and employee I had the chance to work in these spaces. Because many of the evacuees where displaced to Calgary and Edmonton, many of the CFS and YFS spaces were in those two cities. In Edmonton we counted with 4 CFS spaces and 2 YFS spaces, and in Calgary we had 1 CFS.
I saw first hand how these spaces made an impact in the lives of the children but also that of the families.
