Team from ITB Put Smiles Back on the Face of Lombok Children after the Earthquake with Art
By Adi Permana
Editor Adi Permana
LOMBOK, itb.ac.id – Art is useful to bring back self-esteem, cooperation, and happiness to the children in disaster affected areas. Considering that trauma recovery for children in Lombok is required, Institute for Research and Community Services of ITB (LPPM-ITB) through a team consisting of students from Faculty of Art and Design (FSRD) conduct trauma recovery by using art or usually called art healing in Batu Rakit at Sukadana Village, Bayang District, North Lombok.
“Art healing is a method that use art media such as drawing paper, clay, or music to recover the client’s psychological condition,” explained Ardhana Riswarie, S.Sn, M.A, one out of five art therapists in Indonesia who is also a lecturer at FSRD-ITB.
Practically, children in Batu Rakit is encouraged to draw anything using provided media to express their emotion. They can draw, color, squeeze, rip apart, or even throw the paper as long as they do not hurt themselves or the facilitator. This method is commonly used as a method of trauma healing especially for children.
Healing trauma with art healing is not the same with curing an illness by taking medicine. Even so, the development is still noticeable through visible symptoms. The aim is for the children to have acceptance and forgiveness for themselves so that they understand what happened to them and understand the cause of their trauma in order to improve their confidence.
The first day on Monday (24/12/2018) saw 30 kids in Batu Rakit coming to the post. The art healing program will be conducted for 8 days, from 24th December to 31st December 2018 in cooperation with Pemuda Peduli and Red Pencil Singapore. The program will focus on drawing and painting.
The team also manage music therapy for children in Batu Rakit and Semokan Ruak by using percussion. “We hope this method will help them express their emotion better, so that gradually it will relieve their trauma of the disaster (earthquake),” said Bimanda, one of the team members.
Sky lanterns which were written with wishes were released at the peak event to mark the farewell. On that occasion, the team invites children in Batu Rakit to play a game that enhance teamwork and confident. The children also got to learn English and Bahasa Indonesia that will improve their language skill. Head of the RT (neighborhood) and chief of Batu Rakit welcome the activity. “We need this kind of activity so that the children (in Batu Rakit) are united and confident,” said Amri, head of RT 02, Batu Rakit.
Reported by Nur Faiz Ramdhani from Lombok
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