OperationSafe and A=an interview with Jonathan Wilson

Jonathan Wilson, founder of OperationSafe, has spent over 20 years in humanitarian efforts. Currently, his latest project, OperationSafe, has been involved with helping children who have been in trauma either because of wars, natural disasters, poverty, or abuse.

“I have met incredible people who are giving their utmost to help these children regain hope. One such woman is “Summer”, a champion Chinese rock climber who immediately started helping rescuers when the Great Sichuan Earthquake struck. She was so impressed with the needs of the children that she returned to the quake zone with books and set up libraries where the children could come and read in the midst of the evacuation camps. This summer, OperationSAFE helped volunteers like Summer set up nine camps for children in Sichuan.

At one of the camps a little girl was reluctant to hold hands with the other children during games. On the second day of the camp, while relaxing with one of the volunteers she confided that during the earthquake she had lost a finger and was ashamed and afraid that the other children would tease her. With love and acceptance, she faced her fear and was amazed at the compassion of the other children who had also been through the quake. She spent the rest of the camp unafraid and confident.
The core of the OperationSAFE program is "Pete’s Adventure”, the story of a little penguin who is separated from his family when their ice-shelf breaks off into the sea. The children relate to Pete and his experiences of loss and fear, loneliness and despair, but also make the journey with him as he makes new friends, faces challenges, finds hope and learns to help his friends as well.

We are currently working on an animated film version of “Pete’s Adventure” than can be translated and used with children who have suffered trauma all over the world. Please take a look at the trailer for “Pete’s Adventure” and help us help those like Summer who are helping children with trauma.”

Recently, Jonathan answered questions about this project.

Q: What made you want to start OperationSafe?

In our disaster relief work in Asia I have seen that while relief agencies move quickly with food, water, shelter and medicine, children are in desperate need of something more - comfort, reassurance, safety, hope and hugs.

There are many people who are qualified to give emotional care to children. Most of our volunteers are parents, grandparents, teachers and coaches and not trained counselors. What we have done is to make a program that allows these people to give their love to children while providing them evidence based methods to overcome trauma to teach to the children presented at the child's level with story, games, crafts, and songs.

Most of the children in the world who have suffered trauma have no access to professional help. Most of the dedicated professionals who are serving these children know that they will never have enough resources to meet all of their needs. This is why we started OperationSAFE, we are mobilizing people who have a heart for children. These normal people can help children find hope, make friends and rebuild trust while at the same time taking the burden off of the professional care-givers so that they can meet the needs of the truly severe cases.

Q: What is your source for funding? Do you receive grants or private donations? If a reader wanted to donate to your cause, where may they do so?

OperationSAFE is a project of CRASH (Christian Relief, Assistance, Support and Hope) a disaster relief agency that I founded in Japan. We are entirely supported by donations. If anyone wishes to help, they can visit our fundraising page

Q: Who came up with the story idea for Pete's Adventure?

Pete's story is the heart of the program. It is very difficult to talk with a child directly about a traumatic experience they have been through until a relationship of trust has been established. As the children follow along with Pete's story through each day, they identify with what the little penguin is going through as his ice-shelf falls into the sea and he is separated from his family. The story actually came to me as I was sitting in a Japanese hot-spring after returning from relief work in Sichuan, China. We had seen the thousands of children who needed help and I was wracking my brain trying to think of how to teach them the core elements of trauma recovery; Stabilize, Acknowledge, Facilitate Understanding, Encourage Recovery and Recovery/Referral. While I sat in the bath it hit me that we could do this over 5-days in a camp setting, introducing one point per day. But of course we needed to do it in a way that would relate to kids. So Pete was born and each day we teach lessons such as , "I am not alone" and "Everyone's got a story."

Q: Besides the camps, are there other longer-lasting efforts that OperationSafe conducts to help these children?

One of the greatest problems in meeting communities needs post-disaster is establishing trust. Most people are just not eager to accept outsiders. After running OperationSAFE camps in multiple villages in Sichuan we were able to follow up through our partners in China to provide bedding for school dormitories, school supplies for children whose schools had collapsed.

Q: Is there a particular message you would want readers to know?

I think the best thing to share would be to tell the story of one little boy who would watch what we were doing from the fringe but didn't want to participate. He was negative, rowdy and constantly making trouble. On the fifth day of the camp he was still hanging around and one of the volunteers took a walk with him around the ruins of the village. As they passed a hillside the seven year old pointed up and said that on the day of the quake there were boulders rolling down the hillside and he watched one crush a man and split his body into pieces. He shared with the volunteer that in order to escape he had to step on the man's body. The volunteer was able to put her arm around his shoulder and tell him that it wasn't his fault. Through that simple act she was able to take a terrible burden off of this young boy.
It is our hope that OperationSAFE could be put into use wherever children have suffered trauma, whether from disaster, war, abuse, abandonment or poverty. Thank you for reading and please help us to help the little ones.