Sri Lanka Red Cross Society/ American Red Cross Psychosocial Support Program 18 Months Report, January 2005- June 2006 Anjana Dayal, MSc. Country Manager-Sri Lanka Psychosocial Support Program As the result of tsunami on 26th December 2004, over 30,000 people were dead and many more were injured, displaced and emotionally devastated in Sri Lanka. Survivors of this, one of the biggest ever, disaster were left with hopelessness, helplessness, sleepless and fearful nights, anguish, confusion, tears, loneliness and shattered resilience. Survivors found themselves in a totally new situation, both in terms of physical environment and people around them; a school of psychologists call it ‘Loss of Place’ after an adverse event. The house they lived in, the plants and pets they cared for, old neighbors, for a lot of them, their significant others, were taken away by a huge wave. They were striving to get hold of scanty resources available to survive, struggling with their beliefs, fighting with their God, or some of them praying even harder for healing and restoration. Though most of these reactions are reduced over a period of time, but some remain for a life time. One of the biggest challenges for the humanitarian community was to recognize the remaining resilience in the survivors and to enhance it so that they could move on to the path of recovery at optimum pace. Acknowledging the psychological and social issues, Sri Lanka Red Cross Society kindly invited the Partner National Societies to assist them in meeting these needs, American Red Cross being one of them. American Red Cross promptly responded to the invitation and ERU and assessment teams for Psychosocial Support Program (PSP) and Water and Sanitation projects. For PSP, American Red Cross started the process of designing a comprehensive, beneficiary focused program under direct supervision of the Senior Functional Advisor, PSP, for which following steps were taken: 1. Assigned two PSP personnel to the Southern province in February. The purpose of this assignment was (1) to train different groups of volunteers from the SLRCS to conduct assessments following participatory methodology, (2) to conduct participatory assessment in schools and communities in Matara and Galle, and (3) to prepare volunteers that would assist the IFRC/ERU during distributions by providing timely Psychological First Aid to primary stake holders. 2. Based on the results from the first phase assessments, RAT and FACT reports, needs for a bigger team and long term interventions were identified. One team of one leader and three members were brought in to conduct focus groups, individual interviews and district level participatory assessment workshops in Southern and Western provinces. During this phase, Kalutara branch introduced the team to the Pasdunrata, National College of Education. College authorities expressed interest in the capacity building of the student teachers as well as the faculty. The branch wrote a concept paper which was then approved by all the partners. 3. Followed by the assessments, participatory process of proposal writing began with technical assistance from headquarters along with the SLRCS. This initial proposal was originally made to serve Matara, Galle, and Kalutara. Shortly after the proposal, budgets and attachments were send to Washington, the SLRCS proposed that PSP activities be extended to Hambantota, Colombo City and Colombo Branch, and to Gampaha. After the approval from the headquarters, the program was then expanded to Colombo city, Colombo and Gampaha. After all the formalities such as proposal approval from headquarters, movement platform and recruitment of the local staff, the project finally began on December 15th 2005. 4. Simultaneously, the team continued to strengthen the relationship with SLRCS both at national and at district level. The team along with other movement partners assisted SLRCS to formulate the first draft of the Theoretical Framework for PSP. Primary beneficiaries and SLRCS personnel were involved at every step of the project design and are currently implementing the program in all the six branches. In January, fourteen SLRCS PSP staff were trained as Crisis Intervention Specialists. These personnel are now training other staff and volunteers with support from the ARC delegates, which is one of the impact indicators for capacity building of SLRCS. At present, SLRCS PSP staff are running seven PSP offices in the target branches that are well organized in terms of updated status board, documentation per community and per school and vital equipments. SLRCS/ARC PSP program is striving to meet the psychological and social needs of over 350,000 tsunami survivors in culturally and technically appropriate ways and is strictly guided by industry standards like Sphere, MHPSS (Mental Health and Psychosocial Support), INEE (Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies), guidelines from SLRCS and the government of Sri Lanka and the seven fundamental principals of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The program is dealing with diverse population in terms of religion, language and ethnicity; beneficiaries of the program include Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and Christians who could be Sinhalese, Tamils, Burgers, Indians and people from mixed backgrounds. Fraction of the primary stakeholders is still staying in IDP camps and the languages spoken are Tamil, Sinhalese and English. PSP program is assisting the tsunami survivors to re-establish their sense of place in the new reality they are forced to live in. The program thoroughly follows the participatory approach and is led by the needs of the primary stakeholders. There have been significant and sound collaborations with the movement partners, Government authorities and other NGOs in order to mobilize maximum resources and sustainability of the activities. Achievements of the program till date are as follows: 1. Two days PSP operational training was conducted in all the six target branches for SLRCS volunteers to enable them to conduct the assessments at the community level. 2. Assisted SLRCS to formulate the Theoretical Framework for Psychosocial Support. 3. Conducted training for Master Trainers for SLRCS volunteers in conjunction with Disaster Mental Health Institute at South Dakota University, US. 4. Ninety six (96) SLRCS PSP personnel have been recruited and are currently implementing the activities at the community level under supervision, out of which seventy four (74) are trained as Crisis Intervention Specialists. 5. Assisted SLRCS to set up PSP offices in the six target branches with the necessary equipments and trained staff to implement PSP activities. 6. Participated at the workshop chaired by Mike Vessels (Co-chair for Inter Agency Standing Committee for formulating the MHPSS standards) organized by Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, where long term strategic goals for PSP in Sri Lanka were formulated. 7. SLRCS/Canadian Red Cross adopted the American Red Cross model for psychological first aid for the all the SLRCS volunteers island wide. 8. Several community based tools to disseminate simple information about PSP have been developed at the two material development centers in Kalutara and Matara. Some of these materials have been contextualized from the previous DMH programs and some of them are originally developed by SLRCS personnel with the technical guidance from American Red Cross. 9. Assisted SLRCS to established relationship with the Ministry of Education (MoED) from the higher education department to build the capacity of National Colleges of Education nationwide, with more focus in Galle, Matara and Kalutara. 10. Assisted SLRCS to established relationship with the MoED from Guidance and Counseling Department to be able to work with schools under the National Plan for mainstreaming psychosocial well-being through the education system. 11. Assisted MoED to build the capacity of Senior Master Trainers who will be training seven thousand teachers all over the island as part of the ‘Mahinda Chintana’ President’s Vision for Education System in Sri Lanka. Currently, as the member of Technical Advisory Committee at MoED, assisting MoED along with other actors to design a training manual for guidance teachers. 12. Submitted first draft of the pre-service teachers training manual to SLRCS, MoED for review. After the review, MoED has formally requested if the contents of the manual could be incorporated in the curriculum for the pre-service teachers. 13. Established association with Ministry of Social Services/Social Welfare to obtain Government Diploma for the Crisis Intervention Professionals’ course. Currently working with SLRCS and the faculty of National Institute for development of the curriculum for the course through a participatory process. 14. Liaison through SLRCS with the Buddhist University at the request of SLRCS district branch at Kalutara to train at least three hundred (300) Buddhist Monks in Psychological First Aid. 15. Different projects and activities are being implemented in the target communities and schools. All the activities are based on mapping of risks and resources within the target area. At grass root level, following were the highlights along with several other substantial activities: a) Assisted a group of women in village called Polwathumodara in Matara district to run a lace making project. Thirty eight women came together to re-establish their sense of place by getting involved in their traditional custom of making lace through a lace-pillow machine. Through this activity they are able get together to share feelings and information while making the lace. b) In Mirissa Methodistha College in Matara, the school teachers, students and parents got together to do the mapping of the school. One of the risks identified was that he school did not have a fence around it, which was a challenge security and a discipline in the school campus. The school community planned an activity to put the fence around the school together with some material support from the PSP program. This activity helped the school community to join together to solve the problems in the school through solution focused sustainability. c) In Thallala village in Matara, community of fishermen was not able to fish as the sea bed near their village was polluted after the tsunami wave swept the debris and trees into the sea. Through the PSP program, the fishermen were empowered to clean the sea bed and as a result they were able re-establish their sense of place through ecological sustainability. d) In Habaraduwa village in Galle, during the community mapping, one woman who knew how to sew was identified as the resource in the community. The women’s group expressed the need of learning stitching clothes. The woman planned the sewing classes including identifying a place and timing for conducting the class. The program supported the activity by providing two sewing machines based on the planning and resources offered by this group of women. Through this activity, old neighbors before tsunami are able spend some time together and share precious memories, even though now they are living in different areas. e) In the same village in Galle, community members along with the PSP personnel decided to start classes on block making, because it would serve as capacity building of the community folks as well as eventually having houses with blocks will enhance the security of the community. f) In Kalutara, PSP program is assisting SLRCS district branch to build the capacity of the Pasdunrata National College of Education. One hundred and fifty two pre-service teachers have been trained along with four master trainers. Material development center has been renovated for which the PSP program also collaborated with Spanish Red Cross. This center is developing school based PSP material which will be approved by SLRCS, American Red Cross and MoED before dissemination. g) In Wadduwa west in Kalutara, in an old age home thirty (30) elderly people are staying. The home is near the coast, these elderly have been suffering from loneliness for years and since the tsunami they were also living with fear. The PSP personnel mobilized the youth of the village to get to gather with the old folks to have fun, share information and learn about the history and traditions for their land. They prepare meals together and involve in singing cultural songs. The activity helped the elders to have the feeling of togetherness and that they were also a part of the community and at the same time the youth in community is learning about the wonderful heritage of their country. h) Another old age home is in Negombo. The elders are involved in the celebration of festivals, where various events are conducted in which everybody actively participates, does some physical work and shares reminiscences. This helped to build a sense of confidence within themselves and strengthen their support for each other. This activity is assisting the elderly people to feel a valuable part of the community. i) Another important achievement is assisting the communities to establish community centers in all the target areas. Community folks plan and renovate an available space in the community to make it common meeting place for all. In Gampaha, the community identified during the planning meetings that the children were not able to continue their Sunday schools and recreational activities because the community center was not in the proper condition, the community then came together and agreed to renovate the center so that the children can start with their regular activities and also the community would have a proper place to come together share and disseminate information. The community centers are also being used to keep records pertaining to the official documents lost in tsunami, i.e. identity cards, diplomas. PSP staff along with the community leaders is coordinating the Government authorities to get duplicate copies of the lost documents. j) At the request of the primary stakeholders, PSP program also supported the ceremonies of the first year anniversary of tsunami in IDP camps and few communities. PSP staff and the community members came together as one family on this day to perform the rites and rituals according to Sri Lankan culture that strengthen the ties between the PSP program and the primary stakeholders. Summary This community based psychsocial support program was undertaken after the tsunami in the Southern and Western proviinces of Sri Lanka. The program was developed in villages and schools in sixx districts. To date 56,664 person have been imacted directly by the program.