ISLAMABAD, July 4: Two Britons arrived here Tuesday with an innovative idea of bringing out from trauma the children who survived the devastating earthquake in October last year.

Eugenie Reidy, an anthropologist, and Theo Baines, a photographer and freelance researcher for BBC, have brought with them a mobile cinema to help bring back smiles on the faces of traumatised children.

Moved by the plight of earthquake victims, they have left their jobs and have become Kashmir International Relief Fund (KIRF) volunteers to spend some 10 weeks among the children in the quake-hit areas of Azad Kashmir and NWFP.

Talking to Dawn Eugnie Reidy and Theo Baines said they had conceived the idea in January but kept on looking for sponsors to fund the project. They said they were disheartened when two organisations backed out of their promise to fund the project.

“We were lucky enough to find KIRF as it is a perfect match for us”, Reidy remarked. Elaborating her point she said there was a need for local experts which can be fully met by the KIRF having roots in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.

She said merely using conventional methods of psychological treatment of the traumatised children was not enough, who had seen their school buildings collapsing and their friends dying with their own eyes.

She said movies would be shown to the children who were spending their days in the camps scattered in the region. She said they have brought various DVDs with them including children’s favourite cartoons like Tom and Jerry and Pink Panther, besides educational films including natural documentaries with lovely music in the background.

She said they had brought with them a 2.5 X 2.5 metre large screen and projector and speakers of high quality. “We aspire to establish a bond in the disaster struck region with fun and laughter for the young children”, she added.

She said they had the plan to screen films in the hospitals of Islamabad from today (Wednesday) to July 9.

The mobile cinema will be taken to Balakot on July 10 for five days. She said they were aware that the elections in AJK were scheduled to be held on July 11 and they had decided to go to Azad Kashmir a few days after the polls, covering Muzaffarabad, Neelum Valley, Bagh, Rawalakot and Mirpur.

She said the films will be screened at schools, hospitals, halls and bigger tents.

Theo Baines said the second part of the project was cinema workshops, which would help enhance the creative capabilities of the children.

He said the children would be asked to give ideas for short skits, in which they would act. The skits will be filmed and edited and the children will be able to see themselves performing.

He observed that this was a way to make the children express themselves. He said other creative activities of children like painting could also be filmed and shown to them.