The media's interest in any event is short-lived. We are used to detailed and intense coverage of a major disaster – at least for a few days. After that, the journalists move on. Survivors, and their friends and families, are no longer newsworthy.
This assembly kit offers an insight into what can happen to those affected by events that hit the headlines. In their words, it tells how the event changed three people's lives, and how they have coped since.
Running the basic assembly is straightforward. Photocopy the script, allocate the four or five speaking parts, then have a read through or rehearsal before the performance.
That basic performance can be enhanced by including some of the add-ons.
Further learning is offered by the follow-up activities. These are a range of simple activities suitable for exploring the issues in more depth in class after the assembly. Use them to build on the original assembly and follow up students' own experience and interests.
Contents
Downloads
Age group
Aims
Performance
Add-ons
Follow-up activities
Download the assembly kit as a PDF or Word document or continue reading this page. Photos to accompany the assembly are available in a powerpoint.
This assembly kit is suitable for 9 to 16 year olds.
- To deepen students' understanding of the complex situation of survivors – those seriously injured by an event that might have killed them
- To encourage students to think about the long-term impact on those affected by a newsworthy event
- To allow students to explore the practical, emotional and financial effects of being an injured survivor, on individuals and families.
The following speaking roles are needed:
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Narrator one
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Narrator two (optional, both narrator parts can be read by the same person)
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Danny Biddle, the most seriously injured of the survivors of the 7/7 London bomb blasts of July 2005
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Begum Syeda, a survivor of the Pakistan earthquake in October 2005
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Aron Ralston, who lost his right arm in a climbing accident.
Narrator one
Whenever a major incident is reported on the radio or television news we hear the death toll – the extent of the awful and sudden loss of life. We are usually also told how many people have been injured, "some of them seriously".
How much thought do we give to those injured people? Perhaps we imagine them with an acute injury, broken limbs or cuts and bruises, that will mend after a period of rest. That is not how it was for our first speaker, who talks almost a year after the event that changed his life.
Danny Biddle
“Come and spend a night in my head and see what I see. Hear the screams of the people trapped around me. It still feels like yesterday.”
Narrator one
This is Danny Biddle, the most severely injured of the survivors of the London bomb blasts in July 2005. He spent almost a year in hospital after four surgeons operated on him to save his life. He lost both legs, an eye and his spleen. He survived.
Danny Biddle
“When I was lying there I tried to reach to my legs. It felt like a tap with the blood rushing out. I knew the more I panicked the quicker the blood would come out so I tried to stay calm.
”I felt I was going to die and was thinking of all the things I wasn't going to do – get married to my girlfriend Lisa, have children. But my main thought was to get out of that tunnel.”
Narrator one
Danny Biddle did get out of that tube-train tunnel. He spent eleven whole weeks in one hospital. He was then transferred to another London hospital for rehabilitation. That meant learning to use his artificial legs, getting used to his new life, and coping with the memory flashbacks. He is not alone. Here is someone else, also speaking a year after a momentous event in her life –
Begum Syeda
“I can feel the mountains shaking. Houses and buildings start crumbling all around me.”
Narrator one
Begum Syeda is a survivor of the earthquake that shook the Himalayan region of Kashmir in October 2005. Whenever she thinks of it –
Begum Syeda
“It sends a chill down my spine.”
Narrator one
Like Danny Biddle, Begum Syeda is haunted by memories of the day –
Begum Syeda
“The blood-soaked bodies, destruction, screams and the strange sound of the earthquake still haunt me day and night. I can't sleep properly.”
Narrator one
For both of them, life has changed in so many ways. Begum and her four children were buried under the wood and stone of their mountain home when it collapsed under the force of the earthquake. They were pulled out of the rubble alive. But Begum's husband was killed, crushed by a falling boulder as he collected wood in a nearby pine forest. One of Begum's children died later. He caught pneumonia while in temporary shelter during the harsh winter.
Begum is currently living on the $875 compensation she received from the government. Danny Biddle is also unable to go back to the work he did before the bombs. He too has been paid compensation.
Danny Biddle
“My compensation was abysmal: £118,332 and that's my lot. It's quite a callous way they explain it. You can only claim for three injuries – even if you've got 200.”
Narrator one
Both Danny and Begum are coping with emotional and financial challenges caused by the disaster. Those challenges will be with them all their lives.
Narrator two
People's lives are not only changed by major disasters affecting hundreds or thousands of people. One young man from the United States, Aron Ralston, lost his right arm in a climbing accident. He was alone and came very close to bleeding to death, but managed to stay calm while he was trapped for several days under a boulder. Yet it was the hospital stay and the period afterwards that he found hardest.
Aron Ralston
“The hours after I came up from the anaesthetic proved to be the lowest point of my recovery. I had seven tubes running in and out of me, and three new sources of pain. I couldn't sleep, and wasn't allowed to eat or drink, so I complained mercilessly.”
Narrator two
Aron had been very physically active, living for outdoor sports and adventure. So the necessary rest was a big change –
Aron Ralston
“Convalescence was hard on me. Not just the drip-bag routine but the whole thing. I hurt all the time from both phantom and real pain, even with the drugs. While I was continuously medicated, I never rested well... My frustrations and the drugs turned me into such a bossy and grouchy snot that even I was sick of hearing myself.”
Narrator two
So while there was obvious celebration, joy and relief at Aron's survival, there was also a period of difficulty, a lot of doctors' appointments, and a lot of adapting to new circumstances.
Aron Ralston
“I learned how to tie my shoelaces and even tie a necktie one-handed. Improving rapidly, I practised my left-handed print and cursive [writing] and began typing on my laptop with just five fingers. My occupational therapist got me a rocker knife so I could cut meat. With either adaptive equipment or new techniques, I relearned to do just about everything I needed...”
Narrator one
That desire to make the best of the new situation is common to many survivors. Not one of the people we have heard today is anything but glad to be alive. All are full of praise for the medical teams and the family and friends who helped them. But an important part of feeling lucky to be alive can be a lot of determination to meet challenges. The suffering and difficulty does not end when someone comes away from a disaster alive. In many ways, the struggle is just beginning. Overcoming obstacles will demand a lot of courage, patience and endurance from them, and their friends and family.
End of performance
The assembly will work fine in the plain, vanilla-form outlined above. But if you want to give extra flavour or interest, incorporate some of the following add-ons. Use students' energies to the maximum.
Sounds and music add-on
Add meaningful music as a sound track at appropriate places in the performance. Invite a group of students to contribute ideas for songs or pieces of music on the themes of lucky or survivor. With the right equipment and support, students could mix their own sound montage.
Talk about the Song of Doves, a poem written by the parents of a woman who died in the Piccadilly tube blast on 7 July 2005. It was produced by a survivor of the Edgware Road bombing, "trying to respond to the events in a positive and creative way". It was sung at the national anniversary event a year after the bombing.
If appropriate, talk about how music and poetry helps people.
Pictures add-on
Download a powerpoint with photos of the three people in the performance.
Use these pictures as a backdrop to the assembly. Or encourage a group of students to prepare posters or montages, using these and other survivor images.
Consider using some of the words of the survivors as visual illustrations.
Speaker add-on
Inviting an outside expert or someone with direct personal experience to talk to the group can add another dimension to the assembly. Or you might consider it as a separate event, either a follow-up or prologue.
Prepare the group for the speaker's visit. Make sure they have some idea of the ground to be covered, and a supply of relevant questions and areas for exploration.
Some ideas for contacting speakers:
- A local person who has survived a serious event. A local or regional newspaper might be able to help make contact.
- Survivor groups. After major incidents or disasters survivors may stay in touch and share their thoughts with other people in the same situation. Those who have been through the same experience may be able to help each other in ways others cannot.
- Some British Red Cross branches run a "care in the home" service, designed to help people discharged from hospital adjust to their new situation. Speakers should provide a good insight into the practical realities of getting used to changed circumstances. Request a school speaker.
These follow-up activities can be used after the assembly to explore some of the issues in more depth. You might use these directly after the assembly, or as a way to come back to the topic later in the term.
Reality of surviving follow-up
As a classroom activity, boardblast students' initial reaction to the word "survivor" or "disaster survivor". Ask for adjectives, adverbs or phrases that come to mind.
Examine the list. Are the suggestions mainly positive, stressing the good fortune of surviving? Or are they more mixed, indicating that the students are aware of some of the realities of surviving a traumatic incident?
Try to get inside the mind of a survivor. How can natural elation of surviving last over months and years? Draw on their own personal experience of illness, hospital visits or disability to explore feelings and coping strategies.
Multiple challenges follow-up
Suggest to students that there are roughly three different categories of challenges that survivors have to get used to:
- Adjusting to new practicalities, such as living with a physical disability. Or the need for regular and lengthy medical treatment. Or having to live in temporary shelter away from home.
- Emotional problems, including perhaps the loss of family and friends, dealing with recurrent nightmares, "survivor guilt" and other psychological disturbances
- Financial, such as being unable to work, extra costs of disability or loss of a household's wage earner.
Talk about which are hardest to cope with. How might the different categories overlap?
As a written exercise, ask students to imagine that they survived an incident and are writing an email a year later to a friend saying what life is like. Ask them to show that they feel lucky to be alive, but also aware of new challenges which they wish they didn't have.
Supporting survivors follow-up
What support do students think each of the three survivors in the assembly performance would value? Work on the three separately and identify differences and similarities. Try to come to agreement about what help and support a survivor might hope would be available. What agencies might provide it? Include formal operations (such as social services or health services) as well as informal (such as friends or community groups).
Compensation follow-up
Two of the people in the assembly performance received financial compensation from the government for their losses. Discuss the principle of injury compensation with students. What is it for?
In the UK compensation is provided for victims of violent crime through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. The sums awarded for particular injuries is fixed according to a scale set by Parliament. There are 25 levels of compensation for injuries ranging from £1,000 to £250,000.
Danny Biddle thinks the compensation he received is inadequate. He has multiple injuries, though the rules are that claims can be made only for three. And the value of the second and third most serious injuries are much reduced, to 30 per cent then 15 per cent of the figure on the scale. Danny had to decide which were the most serious injuries he could claim for. He describes having to select his most "expensive" injuries on a claim form as "like shopping through an Argos catalogue".
His first claim was for losing his legs – £110,000. "Then you go to the next most expensive injury. CICA says the loss of an eye is worth £27,000 – but then they take 70 per cent off that because it's only your second worst injury, so I received £8,000 for my eye. Next was my spleen for which they gave me £332."
Discuss with students how they might feel if they had to claim money for injuries in this way. How would they approach it? What do they think of the sums of money involved, compared with some other legal compensation claims they might have heard of? What new costs would someone in Danny’s situation have? Encourage discussion of how far money goes towards reducing suffering.
Credits
This assembly kit was researched and written by PJ White and produced in July 2007. Teachers and other educators are free to use it, copy it and circulate it for their work.
The words of Danny Biddle were published in The Daily Mail in June 2006 and BBC News in July 2006. The words of Begum Syeda are from AlertNet in October 2006. The words of Aron Ralston are from Between a Rock and a Hard Place, published in GB by Simon & Schuster UK, 2004. The quotes have been edited to illustrate the objectives of the assembly kit. The speakers’ views and opinions are not necessarily those of the British Red Cross.
The British Red Cross would like to thank Emily Andrew, David Berry, Robert Bristow, Kate Brown, Carine Carson, Maggie Faulkner, Eve Mason, Joanna Perkins and Paul Williams for their help reviewing and trialling the resource.
This resource and other free educational materials are available at
redcross.org.uk/education