In the days, weeks and even months following the tsunami, many people in Indonesia’s Aceh province showed few obvious signs of their loss and suffering. Yet, with more than 167,000 lives lost, there was not a family untouched by this sweeping tragedy.

The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is renowned for its effectiveness in disaster response. Less obvious, however, is the specialty of some Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in providing post-disaster psychosocial services. In Aceh, three national societies – the Turkish Red Crescent, and the American and Danish Red Cross Societies have been playing a lead role providing psychosocial support. response) teams recovered some 45,000 bodies from the mud and debris along Aceh's inundated west coast. Danish Red Cross PSP delegates offered psycho-social counselling to help these dedicated PMI volunteers programme (PSP) team arrived at the joint Indonesian Red Cross (Palang Merah Indonesia or PMI) and Federation emergency operations centre in Banda Aceh to deliver PSP services. This Movement partner set a precedent by working with PMI to start a radio programme that aired in the spring of 2005, where people phoned in to share their tsunami experiences with fellow listeners. This initiative has evolved into “Rumoh PMI” (PMI House), a popular radio show supported by the Irish Red Cross community outreach programme.

During the emergency phase following the tsunami, PMI Satgana (disaster response) teams recovered some 45,000 bodies from the mud and debris along Aceh's inundated west coast. Danish Red Cross PSP delegates offered psycho-social counselling to help these dedicated PMI volunteers cope with the tragedy in their midst. Photo: International Federation (p12963)

The TRCS is making a long-lasting contribution to psychosocial well being in and around Banda Aceh with the construction of a community centre specializing in PSP services. The centre’s facilities include meeting rooms, a disaster studies library and a multi-functional sports field.

A professional team has been locally hired to train PMI Aceh branch staff and volunteers to deliver psychosocial activities in their own communities.

Activities include handicrafts, computer literacy and language training, as well as health-related courses such as psychological first aid, maternal child care and personal hygiene – to reintroduce a sense of normalcy and opportunity into the lives of people affected by the tsunami. One of the TRCS most effective outdoor courses was “nature is still my friend”, where children cleared debris from the shoreline to help overcome their fear of the sea.

The PSP community centre built, equipped and staffed by TRCS will be officially handed over to PMI on 26 December 2006 to commemorate the 24-month mark after the tsunami. The Danish Red Cross (DRC) is well-known for its PSP expertise. During the tsunami emergency response phase in Aceh, the DRC focused their efforts on assisting people in the hard-hit towns of Meulaboh and Teunom. The DRC’s practical approach to help communities return to a sense of wellbeing included the provision of school kits for children as well as the construction of traditional meunasa (gathering places), and livelihood-based establishments of coffee shops and tea stalls for social interaction.

In the current recovery phase, DRC is conducting a well-planned programme for introducing PSP techniques into schools. Beginning by gaining acceptance from school authorities, the DRC then works with local PSP specialists to prepare teachers for delivering PSP-related curricula (inventing games, acting-out plays and drawing). This Children traumatized by the tsunami gather outside their school for a "drawing picnic" where they create a collective mural that helps them express their feelings and also reinforces a sense of cooperation need special attention for onward referral to amongst them. professional counsellors.

Children traumatized by the tsunami gather outside their school for a "drawing picnic" where they create a collective mural that helps them express their feelings and also reinforces a sense of cooperation amongst them. Photo: Ayu Ovira/American Red Cross (p14802)

DRC is also making a strategic contribution to the development of PSP capacities of PMI. DRC support of PMI PSP began six months prior to the tsunami, responding to an initial expression of interest from PMI, and has continued with assistance in the development of a standardized PSP training curriculum for PMI volunteers, including the Satagana disaster response teams positioned in PMI branches across the archipelago.

The American Red Cross (ARC) is also working with PMI to build the national society’s PSP capabilities. PMI staff and volunteer training programmes are underway in the Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar branches, and are expanding to include the Calang branch in Aceh Jaya district.

The ARC’s collaboration with PMI allows them access to schools, where teachers are trained to deliver PSP-related creative and expressive activities such as drawing, mural painting, traditional dancing and team sports, with the intent to help traumatized children express their anxieties in safe and accepted ways. One innovative activity is the preparation of a school-based disaster response plan by teachers together with their students, which involves risk assessment and evacuation routes, as well as physical and psychological first aid.

A third component of the ARC programme is an effort to help rebuild the community’s social fabric – to address the disruption of traditional support systems. Activities include the facilitation of burials according to local customs and the subsequent grieving process and related rituals, as well as the establishment of informal education so that school dropouts and students needing remedial teaching can have a safe alternative to continue their learning.

Psychosocial support training is now an integral part of PMI’s disaster preparedness programme. There is much work ahead to maximize PMI’s capacity for delivering PSP as an integral part of disaster recovery throughout PMI’s branches in all 33 Indonesian provinces.

Providing knowledge and skills for the effective implementation of community-based PSP to affected populations is an essential part of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement’s activities in Sri Lanka.

In the days and weeks following the tsunami, Red Cross and Red Crescent psychosocial support staff visited dozens of schools and affected populations in Sri Lanka to help people overcome their emotional trauma.

American Red Cross (ARC), in cooperation with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS), is running school and community-based psychosocial programmes in the south of the country.

Because of the sheer number of students needing assistance, Red Cross staff began training teachers in psychosocial first aid - how to identify common stress reactions, how to help people open up without pressuring them and how to listen, comfort and help people deal with their emotions. So far, 75,000 people have benefited from these activities, which also includes renovating community centres, training community volunteers as PSP facilitators, and developing community maps to identify and prioritize community resources and risks.

In order for this type of psychosocial first aid to be most effective people must have opportunities to express themselves, With the help of SLRCS, ARC is working with the Ministry of Education to train hundreds of pre-service teachers at the Kalutara National Teacher’s College in south west Sri Lanka. This collaboration aims to encourage a shift in attitudes, from merely relaying information to developing information with students, and to make an impact on the education system as a whole.

The tsunami had an enormous negative psychological impact on survivors. Volunteers from Sri Lanka Red Cross gave psychosocial support to children affected by the tsunami. children are between 5 - 16 years of age. Photo: International Federation (p14816)

Within days of the tsunami the American Red Cross, in partnership with UNICEF and the Government of the Maldives, began providing psychosocial support to survivors on islands across the Maldives. In the first three months, the programme focused on helping survivors cope with the emotional impact of the disaster.

Emotional support brigades were established on 23 islands and trained counselors dispatched to provide psychological support services to over 22,000 people. Hundreds of teachers were trained to provide psychological first aid and to lead creative and expressive activities to help students share their grief. Many of them used large “school kits” which contained much-needed supplies for lessons and creative activities.

Since the emergency phase, the programme has expanded to include schools and communities on 80 islands in the most tsunami-affected atolls of: Laamu, Meemu, Thaa, Dhaalu, Gaafu Alifu and Gaafu Dhaalu. The programme is successfully bringing people together to rebuild their lives and their communities by:

Over the next three years, the project will directly benefit 50,000 teachers, students and community members, helping them recover from the tsunami and preparing them to meet future challenges.

Indonesia | Sri Lanka | Maldives

Indonesia