Resettlement Challenges for Children After Disasters (Case Study): Bam City

Abstract

The Bam earthquake catastrophe has had many negative effects on children. The purpose of establishing post-disaster “child-friendly spaces” is to provide an opportunity for children by designing safe spaces, in addition to creating good physical and psychological conditions that will be effective in helping children to rehabilitate faster after disasters. Bam city, after the horrible earthquake in 2003, was an example of a situation in which a child-friendly approach was considered, and governmental and international organizations and NGOs became involved there and constructed several child-friendly spaces. It seems that, 10 years after the earthquake, an assessment of child-friendly spaces’ impacts is particularly important. Methodology included qualitative assessment-based approaches, and the content analysis method was adopted. In this study, interviews and group meetings were conducted, including presence of children who became juvenile and adolescent during the 10 years after the earthquake, along with parents and educators working in child-friendly spaces; and thus comments of children in relation to child-friendly spaces were collected and analyzed. Results indicate that despite most children being completely satisfied with these spaces, there are still challenges in the optimal planning and design of such spaces. For example, there are proposed strategies including localization of activities, considering the effect of climate on design and also the use of indigenous architectural knowledge, as well as paying attention to secure pathways for children. Providing furniture, interior design, and suitable equipment for children, separating health services, the use of resistant and waterproof tents and colorful ones with age-appropriate and happy schemes, and also increasing green space in addition to the closed spaces were requested by children as feedback on the post-disaster child-friendly space design of Bam.