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| Sunday, 13 February 2005 |
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Dancing their way to normalcy Ranga Jayasuriya reporting from Point Pedro, Jaffna
Under a tree in the sandy ground of St Charles Church, Point Pedro, overlooking the Palk Strait, Vishwa Sharma narrates a folk tale to children who surround him. The twenty-something, mental health volunteer encourage children to take part in the session, arousing their interest and clapping and dancing with them. As the session picks up, children one after the other come forward, to sing or dance filling this tsunami ravaged surroundings with a new-found spirit. Destroyed The adjoining school, Sakkottai Alvai Roman Catholic Tamil Mixed School, run by the Church, has been destroyed by the tsunami waves. The head priest Rev. Father M. Paththinathan climbed to the roof to escape the ravaging waves. The church walls withstood the force of the waves. And the church is now transformed into a welfare centre, while students learn in the makeshift huts built in the church premises. Sharma, who comes from a family which for centuries performed religious festivities of the Nallur Sri Kandaswamy temple, attracts the attention of children. But his sessions are not for mere entertainment. He describes them as "play therapy", which helps him identify traumatised children. Articulate "Unlike grown-ups, kids are not so articulate to describe their emotions. So we have to offer them alternative means to express themselves," says Sharma, who has completed a nine-month training on Mental Health, coordinated by the internationally acclaimed psychiatrist Prof. Daya Somasundaram. "While singing and dancing with the kids, I look whether any kid shows signs of psychological trauma. If you are traumatised you can not feel free to sing and dance. Sharma says that during the just concluded session he noticed three kids who showed a lack of interest, and one little girl confessed she was haunted in her sleep by the nightmares of tsunami. He meets kids individually to give them counselling and also advise parents on how to deal with children's mental trauma situation. Mental Health volunteers like Sharma help these kids to get over their trauma. Two days after the tsunami hit two third's of the coastal belt, mental health volunteers in Jaffna joined ranks to set up a task force which now coordinates all mental health work in the Jaffna peninsula. The volunteers visit welfare camps everyday, meeting tsunami victims and listening to their stories. "When you have someone to tell your trauma to, you feel you are not alone and once you tell it, you feel relaxed. We are listening to them and showing empathy with their situation," says another volunteer, Nishanthan. The role of Nishanthan and his fellow mental health workers is diverse and moves beyond conventional counselling. They help tsunami affected families, find alternative shelters, and provide hospital reference for the seriously traumatised people. If the initial trauma is not sufficiently addressed, it can lead to post-traumatic mental disorder, a condition which would seriously destabilise the mind and could lead patients to commit suicide. Once identified, or confessed by the patient, mental health workers provide counselling to the patient. If the situation needs further assistance, a psychiatrist meets the patient. If more treatment is required, the patient is referred to the hospital, where he receives residential treatment. But, counselling and mental health assistance in the Jaffna peninsula which was battered by the two decades of war meets other challenges. Volunteers treating trauma victims are encountering patients with unaddressed mental disorders caused by the ordeal of war, which displaced the greater part of population in the peninsula. Despite the additional challenge, there is a somewhat bizarre achievement. "Jaffna is well poised to meet the challenges of tsunami trauma. We have years of experience in treating the war's traumatised," says psychiatrist Shiva Shankar, who also teaches Psychology at the University of Jaffna. Shankar says post-tsunami trauma in Jaffna is often associated with the ordeal of the war. "Most people here have been displaced by the war. They have been living in welfare camps for nearly a decade. They have been through all kinds of trauma for years. The tsunami was a deadly blow to these already battered people". Dr. Shankar says he and the other psychiatrists are aware of this dilemma, but admit that addressing such situations requires far greater work, which includes the resettlement of people in permanent settlements. Indeed, the Mental Health Task Force helps tsunami victims find alternative shelters. Plans are afoot to relocate displaced people in tent huts and cadjan roofed huts. "We need to heal the psychological trauma to begin the rehabilitation process. People are slowly rebuilding their lives. But still there is a great deal of personal trauma unaddressed, especially of those whose loved once were lost," says Shankar. When the psychological trauma of tsunami is backed by nightmares of the ethnic conflict, aerial bombing, shelling and corpses, things could get worse. A joke doing the rounds is of one kid telling another that they could survive the Indian Army and the Sri Lankan Army, but could not escape the tsunami. Nishanthan says most men and women he counselled, feel miserable having been repeatedly battered and with no relief in the foreseeable future. "They are moving from one refugee camp to another. They are fleeing the war during half their lives. Decades have been spent being displaced". Sharma explains his feelings during his first ever visit to Colombo just after the ceasefire. "I was full of anger. Here in Jaffna people are starving and were displaced. In Colombo it is a different world. Cars, big shopping malls, trains and buses, they have everything". It is a tough challenge to address the tsunami psychological shock of when there is the trauma of a two decade war remaining unaddressed. Shankar calls for a coordinated approach which will cover a whole range of things - from rehabilitation, resettlement to jobs and equal opportunities, all of which will help heal the psychological trauma. Outside St Charles Church, Sharma invites the kids to take part in a meditation session. Children close their eyes, open their hearts, emotions and ambitions. He asks them what they feel, whom they want to be in the future? Then he begins to dance with the kids singing and clapping with them. The church ground is filled with new found optimism, perhaps the first of that people residing in the camp want to rebuild their lives. |
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