The mission of Disaster
Training International is to help adults help children
who are living with the threat, existence, and aftermath of
disasters. We provide emergency preparedness, mitigation,
disaster response and recovery training for adults who
are responsible for the care, nurture, and well being of young
children in disaster situations. We do this through program-specific
training for groups and individuals, on-line dissemination
of written materials,
extensive resource
suggestions, and links
to other important sites. If readers would like to know
more about a specific topic let us know and we will respond
with written material or references that will be helpful.
Contact us.
B.A. Education
M.Ed Early childhood Education
M.A. International Studies
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Beryl
Cheal is the founder and senior consultant
of Disaster Training International. She is an educator
with over forty years of experience working with children
and adults in early care and education settings in the
United States and around the world. Ms. Cheal has taught
middle and elementary school as well as preschool; has
developed, directed and supervised Head Start and child
care programs in the U.S; has directed a kindergarten
system with refugee children internationally; and has
consulted in the establishment of a toddler program
in Eastern Europe.
Ms. Cheal's in-depth disaster response experience
includes:
Working with children and training school and child
care staffs in New York City after the 9/11 terrorist
attacks.
Working with children of Kosovo refugees in Canada.
Directing a kindergarten system in refugee camps in
war zones.
Training child care staff before and after natural disasters.
Developing emergency management plans for children’s
programs and family child care homes.
Click here to download Ms. Cheal's
biographical information. This is a PDF file and you
will need an Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.
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We hope you find this site useful
as you work with children who have experienced disaster or
some other traumatic event. This is the web site of Disaster
Training International, begun out of the work of Beryl Cheal,
the founder.
Had she known there were things she could
do to relieve the effects of children’s traumatic experiences,
Beryl Cheal might have been able to help the child who came
to her Head Start class one day
and spent the first 45 minutes under the table tearing paper.
But she didn’t know. Nor did she know what to tell teachers
in the refugee camp kindergartens in the Middle East how to
help children who refused to play any other games except –
war.
But over the years she has found there are
ways to help and to share that knowledge and information.
This web site, for instance, is one way to help. It has been
developed to be a resource for those adults working with young
children who have experienced disaster or some kind of traumatic
event, either on a personal or community-wide basis.
We will be publishing a periodic newsletter
to let you know about new information, more articles and other
items of interest. Sign up to
get the latest, breaking news! Just scroll back to the top
of this page, and type in your email in the Join
box.
And now –
did you know that children normally laugh about 512 times
a day? Adults laugh about 10 times! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Maybe
we should start trying to keep up with the kids! Laughter
is the best medicine, they say!
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