One year after the tsunami: The Dutch have helped over 30,000 tsunami victims in Sri Lanka

It's now one year after the tsunami and over 750 mental health workers have been trained in the training center supported by Eureko and HealthNet TPO, a Dutch humanitarian aid organization. The training center was set up one year ago in Jaffna, the northern peninsula of Sri Lanka, and made possible by funds raised by the insurance company Eureko, the holding company of Achmea. The trained mental health workers have helped more than 30,000 tsunami victims with psychological problems during the past year. During the next two years another 3000 health workers will need to be trained in order to ensure that 150,000 tsunami victims with mental complaints can be reached. The training center is fully booked for the coming months.

Jill Markvorsen, a HealthNet TPO consultant, just returned from Jaffna where she helped to set up the tsunami project: “One year after the disaster the tsunami is still the talk of the day in Sri Lanka,” says Jill Markvorsen. “The tsunami touched everyone and it is visible. It is encouraging to see that people are working really hard to reconstruct the stricken areas.”

Training center in Jaffna

In the northern part of Sri Lanka, where more than 500,000 people are living, there are only two psychiatrists providing services. The training center in Jaffna was built to expand the local capacity in the region. 750 health workers have been trained since April. They are now working for local and international relief organizations, including the Red Cross and CARE International, throughout the coastal region of Sri Lanka. A wide variety of trainings are being offered. These trainings range from courses for volunteers on identification and referral of trauma victims to specialised trainings for psychiatric professionals. “Through these activities HealthNet TPO is trying to establish a structure within which those people with psychological problems can receive the treatment they need,” says Jill Markvorsen. “The training center enables the local population to take the relief of trauma victims in own hands”.

Handling the loss together

The health workers that are trained by the local partner of HealthNet TPO, Shantiham, are guiding the set-up of the “support-groups”. In these groups tsunami victims have the possibility to share their stories and help one another. According to Jill Markvorsen it is moving to see how this sharing can relieve the pain. “A lot of people use alcohol to deal with the loss and it is far more difficult to resist this temptation on your one than in a group of people. By helping each other the victims find a way to restart their lives again.”

Fund-raising Eureko staff

At the beginning of January the employees of insurance company Eureko raised €180,000 for aid to the tsunami victims. This amount is doubled by Eureko and placed at the disposal of HealthNet TPO, with which Eureko and Achmea have contracted a long-term cooperation. HealthNet TPO uses this money for the project with Shantiham, an organization that has been supporting traumatized victims of the civil war in Sri Lanka for more than 15 years.

Psychosocial consequences of the tsunami

The tsunami has left deep marks in the northern part of Sri Lanka. Almost everybody has to deal with loss: either of family or home or even the fishing boat, on which the family's income relied. The trainings of HealthNet TPO are mainly focused on recognizing and treating stress related disorders. De health workers of Shantiham apply these trainings in hospitals, severely damaged villages and refugee camps in the northern part of Sri Lanka. A lot of people are double victims: of the tsunami and the war, that has been raging between the Tamils and the Singhalese since the ‘80's.

Amsterdam, December 14th 2005