In Disaster Situations

The devastations - whether as a result of nature's fury or manmade - always take people unawares. In a moment people who were autonomous relatively self-reliant are transformed to totally dependant and disoriented. The grief, inability to comprehend the "Why" of the situation and the uncertainty of the future have erode their sense of dignity.

Catastrophes always strain ones capacity to absorb shock. A disaster brings about unimaginable and lasting psychological trauma.. Shock, panic, fear and bafflement are the first outcomes. Then either numbness or agitation takes over followed by post-traumatic stress symptoms like nightmares, flashbacks, panic attacks and depression and the loss of control on oneself.

The strategy then is to must be to restore the sense of dignity and the self-reliance stage by stage. The affected people are not just victims. They are survivors of the great calamity. Many of them have survived heroically. So the logic is to support these survivors in all solidarity and empathy. They have been violated albeit by the Mother Nature. They now must be defended and assisted to a new start.

With this perspective terre des hommes looks at it's priority areas as well.

It puts children on the top of the support, then women and the whole community. Special emphasis is made on reaching the un-reached. There are always cases of the more vulnerable groups, dalits for instance getting left out of the process of official rehabilitation. Coordination with Government & advocacy on relevant issues is also undertaken to assist relief and rehabilitation activities.

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