Almost 300,000 lives lost, thousands of villages destroyed, and millions of people left injured and homeless.

Three months after the tsunami, survivors are trying to overcome the initial shock — emotional healing is proving to be as important as material relief. ActionAid is facilitating a community-based psycho-social intervention programme as a key part of its response to the tsunami.

In Kalmunai, a village located in the Ampara district, one of the worst affected areas in Sri Lanka, ActionAid has partnered with local NGOs to provide psycho-social training to volunteers, so they can help their own communities. This support doesn’t only address mental and physical issues, but also livelihoods, with a special focus on women and children.

Dr. Unnikrishnan one of ActionAid’s emergency programme co-ordinators, who has been in Sri Lanka since December, explains why psycho-social care is so important to the recovery process:

"Psycho-social care is a comprehensive approach that helps to build hope and confidence amongst survivors and speed the recovery process. While the focus is on well-being and mental health, it is equally important to respond to the relief needs like food, water, shelter etc. as part of the psycho-social programme.

"Psycho-social care is used for addressing the factors that intensify people’s suffering and worsen their mental health. Mostly, it is a community-based approach where interventions are made with the involvement of the community. ActionAid’s experience shows that this approach contributes a great deal to preventing long-term mental illness and trauma.

"The challenge is to ensure that the affected people are not treated as victims but as survivors. Empowerment is a key tool. Ensuring a central role for these people in the plans and policies is the most important step."

photo : ©Dominic Sansoni/ Panos/ ActionAid UK
photo : ©Dominic Sansoni/ Panos/ ActionAid UK