ABSTRACT
Disaster, in this book, is premised on the idea that it is a significant event that leads to wide-reaching death, destruction and devastation. Thus, the focus is on the emotional and psychological effects on survivors and the successful use of the SBFC model in educational settings for restorative intervention. In this chapter, however, I argue that the accepted definitions of disaster as natural or human-generated phenomena do not apply to situations where individuals are affected by a series of calamitous events over a very long period. In other words, disaster is chronic. Chronic disaster, as a notion, captures the persistent trauma of individuals whose childhoods, present existences and futures are ravaged by poverty and disadvantage. It is characterized by physical, socioeconomic, psychological and emotional trauma in disconcerting family structures – orphans living without adults, physical abuse, lack of safety, security, shelter and nutrition. The schools they attend provide minimal support – inadequate to ameliorate the material conditions of their lives. The chronically affected require intensive, extensive and prolonged intervention. In resource-constrained schools, however, the teachers are unqualified and ill-prepared to support adequately those suffering from the psychological effects of chronic disasters. Given these circumstances, an adapted SBFC approach is recommended.
