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Thanks for being in the network of Shalom Foundation. We are very grateful to share our latest information with you all. As you have been informed earlier that Shalom has been involving the Nargis Aftermath response, the trauma recovery support has been taken shape with the help of our international partners; Troicaire, Christian Aid, and World Concern, as well as with our local trauma healers.

Considering the rapid changes in the situation in the delta region, Shalom has been revising its strategy as a psychological support team has been done the emergency period. We have planned the trauma recovery support as a long term work.

As informed, SF sent out our first group of emergency relief for the traumatized Nargis survivors at a camp in Pathein on 17 May 2008 with the help of our local implementing partner (KDN).

We are glad to share the following with you about some of our healers' observation and experiences as mentioned in their daily healer's record;

One member of the trauma recovery support team engaged with a man who was the only one survivor of Nargis out of six family members. The man lost his wife, daughter, son, father and his brother. His village used to have 100 households with about 700 villagers. But now all the houses were damaged and 364 villagers died and so did his five beloved family members. He said he couldn't sleep at night seeing his family members thrown away in front of his eyes. He was identified as a patient with serious trauma.

Case Story: The patient said,

"I was about to leave for the fishing. At around two o' clock, the wind blew slowly. We got the information that there will be a storm, But we didn't expected to be this serious. All of a sudden, the wind got strong and it even carried the trees. While my family and I prepared to run to the church compound, my younger brother was hit by a wooden stick and he fell down. He tried to sit up but the wind was so strong and the tide also was very high up. A coconut tree fell over my younger brother while he was trying to run. I also couldn't help him because I was also struggling from the strong wind and the high tide. I was also helping my father (70 years old), wife (26 years old), elder son (3 years old) and little daughter (one and half year old). We got to the church compound which is a higher place and can't be reached by the high tide easily. But it didn't last long. The downstairs was flooded and we had to go up stairs and up to the roof. The roof also was carried by the wind. The wind and the rain got stronger and stronger and finally a huge wave carried all of us and our family members were separated. Afterwards, I couldn't find any of them (my family). And it was so dark. I tried my best to looking them around. But they were gone…. Finally, I hold on to a wooden bar and stayed there the whole night. It was raining the whole night too. Cold too… At dawn, a few survivors gathered, I got only a short pent on my body. There was no drinking water, so we had the coconut juice. We tried to take the water from the nearest well but we found two dead bodies from that well. We abandoned that well. Later that day, the rescue groups reached to our place and we finally arrived to this camp. Whenever I think, I see the situation then and I feel depressed with so many questions; where to stay afterwards, what to do, nothing left in my life, then I don't want to keep thinking anymore. If I had a plane, I would want to fly to America. Later, I found my father's dead body and buried it. But my wife and other family members were nowhere to be found. There is no way they will stay alive."

As the patient was identified as a serious trauma patient, the healer treated the patient for three days using the methods such as Normalizing, Awareness exercises, Breathing exercises, Creating own inner garden, Flashbacking stop and packing away, Relaxation and Autogenic.

After the three days of treatment through the different exercises and the trust building activities such as joining the religious events together, the patients expressed his thanks to the healers and he said that he felt better after he saw the healer and now he feel fresh and spread the words to other people about the trauma healing methods.

Another patient said, "All of my family members were in the house when the wind and waves got strong. When our house was flooded, we ran up to our roof. We had to hold the bars from our house's roof, but the wind was so strong. Suddenly, a strong wave came to us and we were separated. I just saw my wife for a moment but later they all disappeared from my eyesight. I got to hold a big tree the whole night struggling from the waves and wind. I got nothing on my body anymore. Then, few survivors gathered and we eat what we found around us. I arrived to the camp today. I feel healthy physically, but I kept thinking about my family and the scene that they disappeared from my eyesight. So, I just work with the cooking group just to keep myself busy and not to think about the tragedy anymore."

The healer used the same principals and the patient admits that he now becomes fresh and calm.


Words from a patient:

“Before I met Saya (healer), I didn't take shower, couldn't talk, walk, and just wanted to be in bed. I also couldn't sleep at nights. I felt like my body was shaking. Whoever comes to the camp, I didn't want to see them, talk to them, and see them. Just kept thinking. After I talked to Saya, I was able to sleep at nights, started taking shower and now I walk. Even if I thought of that tragic event, I don't feel terrible anymore. Feel happy in this life now. I feel calm now.”

A young boy told the trauma team, "My brother and I are the only ones survived out of six family members. Those who died couldn't swim and they were carried away by the waves. Even I had to hold my brother's neck and he went up to a tree and that was how we survived. I just follow where my brother goes. Now, I am happy with you all (child-targeted healers) because you offer me snacks, teach songs, and tell stories, so I am happy now."

According to one of the senior trauma healers, trauma healers group had difficulties about the approach to children as the parents are worried about their children's security. One woman was too scared to allow her children to talk to the healer because she was suspicious that her child will be taken away as the child is the only one left in her life.

Healers faced the criticisms that they have no job but talking to people. Unfortunately or fortunately, talking and listening to people and identifying the potential patients are the primary responsibilities of the trauma healers. They have to chat with people at the tea conversations, religious praying and so on to get the trust from the patients.  

As the initial group of trauma healers with 26 came back from the camp from Pathein on 25th May 2008, they also shared their views over the effectiveness of the works they have done. The main challenge was the language barriers because healers come from different part of the country, however the trauma patients speak purely Karen and most children couldn't communicate with the healers. So their parents had to help them. As things were not stable in the camps, some healers said they could have done better if things are not as complicated as then. The healers also made some recommendation to the management team for the trauma healing program of Shalom that;
-    One of the great benefits that Shalom got was that Shalom got the ultimate trust from the local leaders and believed that the trauma recovery support is something that the people in the disaster need. The leaders also suggested that that would be great if Shalom could help the local people get knowledge about the trauma healing methods and trainings. The also have shown the welcomes to implement the program in some other areas.
-    The local leaders also recommend that the next step for the trauma healing should be taken only one month after the survivors in the camps are settled in their respective villages. They also said they will help the teams to penetrate in the communities where their religious leaders are based.

As the process in still on its way, Shalom has also started our assessment team to Malamyine Gyun and Phyar Pone Townships with the help of our local implementing partners; Myanmar Egress and PACT Myanmar.

Updates about the assessment teams' progress and the trauma recovery support teams will be Coming soon!

Shalom Foundation as a local non-governmental organization has been keeping in touch with the update situation and information regarding the aftermath of the Nargis cyclone which is estimated to be the worst disaster Myanmar has ever experienced which happened on the 2nd and 3rd May 2008. Nargis left over one and half million of homeless and refugees along with thousands of deaths and injuries. Aftermath Nargis situation has revealed the visible affects as well as the social and psychological affects of the victims. The worst affected area as you may be informed is the low-lying Delta Areas which is the South West of Myanmar; Yangon Division and Irrawady Division. 40 Townships in Yangon Division and 7 townships in Irrawady have been officially declared as the Emergency Disaster areas.
It has been 13 days since the disaster left the country with chaos situation revealing the thousands of refugees. International NGOs along with the local NGOs, religious organizations and CBOs have been delivering the relief items and services to the affected communities. The international communities also have been putting so much of their effort to get their humanitarian assistance to the affected communities both through the Government of Myanmar as well as through the International Non Governmental Organization.

While the relief works are being done by the different groups and organizations, Shalom Foundation has been reviewing on the situation whether we have the capacity and experience for the relief work to be done effectively. However, Shalom Foundation has established an Emergency Working Committee (EMC) with the staff members to be able to decide which role Shalom Foundation could play in this process. EMC found out that even though Shalom Foundation won't be able to involve in the relief work, we have the strong human capacity regarding:
•    Trauma recovery support
•    Leadership and management skills support and
•    Surveying the affected communities and facilitate the communities to get cooperation with other groups which can assist the communities with the technical support.

Trauma Recovery Support

Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar on 2 and 3 May, 2008 and UN estimates that over one and half million people have been severely affected. Those who affected are now residing in the temporary camps in 40 townships in Yangon Division and 7 townships in Ayeyawaday Division. People who have been moved to the camps are becoming ideal. Most of them are in the situation where the person lost his/her family and being left alone or few family members left, for those who lost their properties would be more traumatized by the situation. The victims seem feeling hopeless and insecure.  

The most vulnerable victims are the children. There are so many of children become orphans and traumatized by the disaster on the death of the parents and the massive people died in front of those children. Some children screams at night, cannot be left alone in the darkness and afraid of shadows. Even the life saving social workers got traumatized by this disaster because of the trauma transferred from the people they are dealing with. These people need mental security and trauma healing in proper way.

Therefore, Shalom Foundation has taken stand to get involved in the Trauma Recovery process of those victims. Shalom also has been in the process to implement the process starting with the cooperation of the local implementing bodies; Knowledge and Dedication for Nation-building, Pathein Myaungmya Association, Ayeyawady Division. Targeting of sending 60 healers to different camps and villages, the first team of 30 trauma healers are ready to leave for Pathein on Saturday 17 May 2008.

Aiming to bring about healing, inner peace and emotional health for those who were traumatized by armed conflicts, violence, dislocation, natural disaster, broken family, abandonment, disabilities, communicable diseases, and absolute poverty, SF started the Fear Treatment trainings since 2002 in cooperation with International Fellowship of Reconciliation funded by the Foreign Ministry of Germany. There have been almost 200 trained healers since the program started and the healers have been involving in the Shalom's programs as the important human resources. Current trauma healing program is facilitated by the German consultant who has the experience during Tsunami disaster in 2004.

Situation in Ko Thar Phyu Camp in Pathein (Initial target):

Shalom Foundation's Initial Assessment Group visited the camps on 13 and 14 May2008. According to the assessment group, there have been over 2700 refugees mainly flowing from Labbutta, Irrawady Division and surrounding villages to this camp. The name of the camp is called Bo Thar Phyu Camp and the people are taken care of by the Pathein Myaungmya Baptist Association which is a local partner network of the Knowledge and Dedication for Nation-building which would also be the implementing body of Shalom's Trauma Recovery process. Potential cooperation will be with PACT Myanmar, Catholic Churches, Myanmar Egress in Myaungmya and Phar Pone Townships.

Our main target for this process would be the traumatized and vulnerable groups such as women, children and elderly people as well as the social workers who are working on the ground.

The first group of trauma healers will be sent to the Ko Thar Phyu camp in Pathein on 17th May 2008 and will start the healing process with the potential patients in the camp. Accordingly, sixty healers who are the very first alumni of the Fear Treatment trainings will be participating in this trauma healing process for the Nargis victims. This process is predicted to last two weeks and will be the continuous process in a period of eight months. The process will continue until the time when the victims start settle in their respective areas.

The challenge so far the camps are facing is there are some threats and opportunities given from the authorities that the non governmental camps have to hand over their refugees to the government handled camps where there are some questions about the sufficient food, water and basic necessities provided by the concerned parties. Our partner has the high possibility that they would lose their victims over the government's order or threats and will have less or no authority over their victims.

Management and Leadership Support Program

MAS fellowship program is a joint effort among three partner organizations in Myanmar; Metta Foundation, Action Aid International and Shalom Foundation whose approach to development is self- reliance. The program has been running for over two years capacitating the young people from Kachin and Kayah States and Shalom has been acting as a lead organization. The fellows have been participating in the various aspect of the community development in their own communities such as education, health and livelihood. Using the knowledge and theories in the fellowship training, the MAS fellows have been facilitating the communities to develop their own communities with the resources available in the area and to sustain those development projects.

The network partner in this Nargis aftermath process is Myanmar Egress and Shalom's fellow in the process is to provide the leadership and management skills regarding the operation in the field such as managing the volunteers' distribution relief items and mobilizing the affected communities to get involved in the resettlement process in the aftermath Nargis. Shalom's role is to provide the project management team and operational costs related to the fellows' operation in the field.

Initial group of MAS fellows arrived Yangon to prepare for the operation process in Phar Pone Township which is the South East part of the Delta region in cooperation with Action Aid and Myanmar Egress which is the main partner network as well as the local implementing bodies in the process.

Involving in the process of nurturing the human resources, MAS fellows would now use their own approach which will be mobilizing the affected communities and using their capacity until they become the supporters of the communities which is most affected and vulnerable. The fellows will also fill the gap of our local partner; Myanmar Egrees regarding the capacity of the volunteers and field operational process. The strategy of the process is that the fellows will be coordinating with the volunteers from Myanmar Egress along with the labour resource from the local volunteers from the affected areas. 30 villages in the East of Phyar Pone Township would be the main focus of the operation.

This program envisions that the fellows in the long rum will encourage and facilitate the communities in rehabilitation process throughout the process. Our long term goal is to lobby the authorities to fully support the rehabilitation process some time later the disaster.  

The target beneficiaries of this process would be the victims who were least affected and partially affected by the disaster and who are residing in the camps and who are willing to go back to their villages and rehabilitate even when the authority is not yet ready. 30 villages east of Phyar Pone Township along the Pathin River Side are the focus areas of the operation.

The first group of nine fellows and Project Manager flew from Myikyina and started the preparation process since 11th May 2008 and started working in the field starting 14th May 2008. The initial field is Phyar Pone Township, Ayeyarwady Division and will expand the working areas with the coordination with our local partners.  Altogether 30 fellows are estimated to be assigned in this process for the period of eight months.

Networking and Coordinating support in Kyauktan Township

Assessment survey at Kyauktan Township, the southern district of Yangon Division had been done 2 times already by SF development program coordinator. The first time was on the 5th and 6th May and the second time was on the 13th May. The township was 21 miles away from Yangon. It is situated near the Muttama Gulf. Total area acres are 208000 (325.70 miles). There are round about 26000 villages' households and 9000 township households. The total population is around 142000.

Damages

Number killed 16
Number injured  4
Number affected 95 % of population
Homeless about 2500 people in town
Homeless 50 % of village households
School 60
Villages' clinics 15
Township clinic  1
Home (totally) 3000~4000
Home (partial) 13000~14000
Monastery 50~60
Pagoda 20~25
Other 10~15
Boat (lost) 15~20
Shrimp pond (ac) 500~600

Victims and Relief Camps
At Town; 10~12 with 2000~3000 victims
At villages; 50~55

UNICEF staff is already on the ground in these areas (in downtown only) with basic emergency supplies for health and clean water. Additional materials are being prepared especially plastic sheets for roofing. Other supplies for basic food are being prepared by the Township State Peace and Development Council in cooperation with other GO-NGOs groups. Myanmar Red Cross Association also provided rice to storm victims from town. None of aids are some villages situated in the other side of town (across river).

There will be continuous survey to assess to get plan for relief and recovery activities in this township. There Shalom Foundation will be taken in role for networking to assist in recovery. Generally based on area geographical survey, the township is largely used for rice cultivation in the southern district of Yangon Division. The major agricultural product is rice which covers about 60% of the township total cultivated land area. In addition, all villages are along the Mawyun River and their livelihoods are basically farming and fishing.

With the realization of the seriousness of natural hazards in cultivated land and farmers, the situation is leading the people in risky living conditions under food unsecured for future. All monsoon rice cultivation areas are washed by storm. Now is the right time to start farming particularly rice cultivation. It should not be delayed any more. The delayed of farming practices will lost the long-term food security in this township. Moreover, farmers are willing to start their farm work in urgent. But they were lost farm inputs especially seed and cows. Therefore, the activities which encouraging farmers to start their farm work in regularly are in urgent needed. In this case, SF will continued filed assessment in special sector for food security and agricultural sector.

This field assessment will be taken in coming weekend (17th to 20th May, 2008).

Focus field

Food security and Agriculture sector

Activity 1;
Discussion with Township Agricultural Extension department
Mapping on the target areas to food security and rice cultivation
Draw the final work plan for needs assessment
Develop survey form for farmers interview

Activity 2;
Group discussions with community authority in each targeted regions
Visiting the selected farmers for individual case studies
Collecting secondary data related
•    Geographical conditions
•    Resources for farming
•    Community strengths and weakness
After the assessment on ground level, Shalom will share the assessment report to existing partners networking and potential partners to develop the action points in line with result of survey assessment. SF will be in only coordination role in this action planning.

So far, in order for Shalom to respond the needs of the targeted areas and communities, Shalom set up the surveying teams to get the required information and the right partner network. One initial team for Trauma Recovery Support was sent to observe and access the needs for the potential patients, local partners and the updates information about the area where the healers would be going. Likewise, an initial group of fellows for Leadership Support Program has been sent to Phyar Pone Township to collect the data and observe feasibility of the process the fellows would be implementing. Moreover, a surveying team also has been sent out to Kyauk Tan Township to access the damages and the affects of the cyclone for Shalom to be able to coordinate with the appropriate partners regarding the technical support and cooperation.

As things are changing very rapidly regarding the camps and the situation about the Nargis disaster, the updating and surveying the situation and the information disseminating will be the ongoing process.

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Summary of Activities
•    Trauma Recovery Support Team to be mobilized to the camps and affected villages.  Target of (60) healers to be mobilized in the Delta areas with local partners.
•    Management and Leadership support Team is working in partnership with Action Aid International and Myanmar Egress in about (30) villages, east of Phyar Pon and along the Phyar Pon river
•    Networking and Coordination support in Kyauk Tan township, Yangon Division
Updates
•    Project manager of MAS fellowship program and the volunteers from Myanmar Egrees are on the ground with 10 fellows in Phyar Pone Township and started their field operation in the targeted 30 villages' data collection and the local labor from the villages. Another 10 fellows are getting ready to follow the initial group.
•    (30) Healers - ready to be mobilized in Pathein and its surrounding areas by 17 May 2008 (Saturday).
•    Continuous recruiting of healers up to 60
•    Accessment continuation in Kyauktan Township during the weekend.
As things are changing rapidly inside the country,

We will continue give update on the condition of the psychologically affected children
We will continue to learn about the situation to understand the needs that we can continue to support so that we can better provide the concrete needs in our next mail after Shalom's trauma support team is on the ground.
Shalom is thinking in terms of immediate, short term and long-term support to the affected people and areas.  The continuous study of the situation will help Shalom to strategize for the further assistance and sustainability of the communities.