While two-year-old Umairoh might not have fully understood what the man before her was saying, she smiled and laughed along with older children in her neighborhood in listening to the storyteller.

It was no typical Monday for the children taking shelter at SDN Pangadegan elementary school in Pancoran, South Jakarta.

Their homes remain inundated, with no certainty as to when the waters will recede.

Some children at the school were cheerful, while others were oblivious to their plight.

Other children who were less fortunate were visibly distraught, sad that they have not been able to return home over the last four days or go to their usual schools to meet their friends.

Concern for the physical and mental impact of Thursday’s flood on children brought members of a story-telling community, Kampung Dongeng, to SDN Pangadegan to ease people’s burdens by telling stories.

“Who wants to be a smart person?” Awam Prakoso, a Kampung Dongeng storyteller, said to a crowd of children at the school.

Little hands went up as children said: “Me!”

“Who wants to be a rich person?” he said, to the same response.

Then, without a break, Awam asked: “Who wants to be an orangutan?” and the children, again, answered, “Me!”

They all laughed together after realizing that Awam was making fun of them.

According to Awam, telling stories and fairy tales could help the children at the evacuation shelter reduce their stress in the aftermath of the flood.

“It’s one way to heal trauma,” Awan told The Jakarta Post at the school after his performance.

“After telling stories, we give them some kind of prizes for the questions they answer correctly. I just hope that the children love it.”

Umairoh’s aunt, Yati, praised the arrival of Kampung Dongeng’s storytellers.

“This is very nice. Not only that the kids are happy, we, too, are happy,” the 48-year-old said with a smile.

“The stories that have been told have a meaning for them, and this can keep them playing all day long,” Yati added.

Psychologist Ratih Andjayani said that storytelling was a powerful medium for delivering messages and values to an audience.

“Storytelling comes with messages of emotion, cognition and behavior,” Ratih said.

“It takes the children out of their real-life situation to an imaginary world that is fun and full of joy.”

Ratih said that by the time the children returned from the imaginary world woven by the storyteller, they would much better prepared to face reality, as their traumas would be healed. (fzm)

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