August 17, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
Sister Brun’s organization provides counseling and support to children who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina—and five years later, to many of the displaced youths’ own children.
The 67-year-old nun says a third of the 6,000 people living in a Red Cross shelter immediately after Katrina were children.
One poignant moment came when she saw a crayon drawing from one of the kids of Katrina. It’s full of red circles with tiny dots all over, representing the eye of the hurricane with dead birds flying around, she says. In the middle is a head on a stick—a kid with no limbs. “He feels he has no control over his life,” Sister Brun says.
“They’re affected psychologically,” she explains. “Their children are traumatized by this as well. This gets passed down to their own children.”
She didn’t escape unscathed, either. Responding to the immediate and long-term nature of the needs took a personal toll. “Fatigue and weariness” took over her, she says. “It really sapped me.” Still, she continues.
What saddens her most is that these children of Katrina no longer have a community or neighborhood to support them or a connection to help them get a job. “The lack of social fabric that they now have since being displaced is their greatest loss,” she says.
