What do we shelter when we shelter children?

An experience report on working during times of flooding

Abstract

This article aims to share excerpts from the experience of welcoming children and adolescents in a shelter created in Porto Alegre during the floods that devastated the state of Rio Grande do Sul in May 2024. Given the potentially traumatic effects of the experiences that children, adolescents, and adults faced in the face of the climate catastrophe, a space for free playing was created. Based on the need to open spaces for elaboration and symbolization of the lived experience through playing, as well as the construction of playful and fictional narratives that would allow for outlining suffering and pain, it was decided to build a specific room for free playing, organized from donations of toys, games, books, and graphic materials. In the midst of the work, the group came across different psychological repercussions of the events, as well as what was revealed by the floods: the neglect and social exclusion of the sheltered population. Based on the stories and games, we entered the universe of these individuals in order to accompany them in the process of elaborating not only what was being experienced at that given moment, but also a history of deprivation of rights that preceded that event.. Thus, given the potentially traumatic situation and helplessness, amplified by the loss of material and symbolic references, we sought to establish protected spaces, where children, adolescents and their families could find support, as well as rediscover and build resources that would allow them to face and overcome the numerous effects and challenges presented during the critical period of the floods.