PESHAWAR, Nov 18: Psychologists have suggested that children from the quake-affected areas should be admitted to schools immediately. “We need to make their lives normal and save them from mental stress and rehabilitate them through education,” psychologists Saeeda Adeela and Tahira Ashraf told a press conference here on Friday. The two are associated with a non-governmental organization which is working for affected children.

Ms Adeela, who visited a relief centre at Hayatabad and was providing psychotherapy to quake-hit minors, said these children needed emotional support and could develop mental disorders if they were not treated properly.

More than 200 children in various hospitals of Abbottabad and Peshawar and in Balakot a camp were being provided psychotherapy for the past 15 days.

She said the children and women who belonged to respectable families disliked the projection of distribution of relief items.

Ms Tahira said that the direct distribution of Eidi to these children and its display through media should have been avoided.

“It could damage their self-respect. There is the possibility that many of these children would grow into beggars if they were not removed from the current conditions to involve them in some positive activity,” she maintained.

She called upon the government to take steps to get these children re-admitted to schools so that they returned to their normal life sooner than later.

The psychologists said that ‘talk therapy’ was proving effective as girls and boys, mostly from Balakot, aged between seven and 17 were improving and showing normalcy.

When the treatment this started, these children used to cry while narrating the trauma caused by the quake and complained of nightmares. But after sharing their grief they seemed a little comforted, they observed.