Red Cross Blogs

Indonesia: support for traumatised quake survivors

By Sarah Oughton
October 20, 2009 at 5:29 pm

It’s been three weeks since the massive earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia caused utter devastation affecting more than 777,000 people – a number equal to the entire population of the city of San Francisco.

Of course the media spotlight has already moved on but for the families who have lost everything it’s going to be quite sometime before they can do the same.

I just got off the phone to Jamie Richardson, who’s leading our logistics emergency response team in Padang – the area worst-affected by the quake. Along with hundreds of local Red Cross volunteers the team is working through intense heat and challenging conditions to continue distributing relief goods – such as food, kitchen sets and tarpaulins – to survivors.

When disasters happen we all know how important it is to provide emergency relief – the material things. But it’s easy to forget the massive psychological impact something like this earthquake can have on survivors.

Women have been particularly hard hit by the earthquake as they were the ones at home with the children when it happened. The Indonesian Red Cross has deployed its psychosocial support team and is bringing women together to give them the opportunity to explore how they are feeling after the quake. The team is also using puppet shows to work with children and help them face their fears, as many do not want to return to school after experiencing the collapse of buildings.

Listen to my interview with Jamie and find out more about how the Red Cross is helping traumatised survivors cope in the aftermath of the disaster.

Image © Sharon Reader/BRC

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Tags: disaster, earthquake, emergency response unit, Indonesa, logistics, relief

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