Archived decisions

Contact: Lynn Ludford, 01252-796270 E-mail [email protected]

1. Introduction

1.1 This report describes in detail the work undertaken by the team of six Social Workers from Hampshire County Council Social Services Department from 27^th April 2005-19^th May 2005 to support the people of Hambantota, Sri Lanka and makes recommendations for further work to be carried out in Sri Lanka

1.2 A list of team members and their current job titles is set out in Appendix 1. A synopsis of their experience is covered in the introduction to Appendix 4.

1.3 The programme for the three weeks is set out in Appendix 2.

1.4 A list of key documents which were available for research and consultation is set out in Appendix 3.

1.5 The Pack developed by the team and left in Hambantota for publication by the Urban District Council is set out in Appendix 4.

1.6 A statement of expenses is set out in Appendix 5.

2. Summary

2.1 This initiative formed part of Hampshire County Council's response to the Tsunami in South East Asia which occurred on 26 December 2004.

2.2 For details please see previous documentation provided by Ian Hoult , County Emergency Planning Officer.

3. Why Hambantota?

3.1 As a member of a consortia of UK Local Authority's Hampshire County Council was allocated Hambantota District, Sri Lanka to support after the Tsunami. Other Local Authorities have been allocated areas affected in Sri Lanka such as Leeds (Columbo) and Suffolk (Matara).

3.2 Hampshire County Council has been given discretion to support the region as it deems appropriate.

3.3 The Hambantota District was severely affected by the Tsunami. In the District 15,000 people were killed, 2,500 of them in the town of Hambantota. Although there is some uncertainty about the accuracy of the figures a significant number of bodies have not been recovered. Some 600 children lost both or one parent. Previously the population of Hambantota District was 500,000. 1250 families and 6342 people were displaced and the number of houses destroyed or partially damaged was 1250. In the town of Hambantota those who lost their homes are living in two camps. These camps are well organised and comprise tents with separate washing and cooking facilities, plus a meeting and play area. Because of dietary and cooking considerations the camps are divided into Muslim and Buddhist communities. (Figures provided by The Hambantota City Development Fund May 2005).

3.4 After a fact finding visit by Ian Hoult in March 2005 it was agreed by the County Council to send 6 Social Workers to provide Counselling and a number of training workshops for families, carers, teachers and community workers in Hambantota.

3.5 The objectives of this three week package of support to Hambantota were:

· to provide limited one to one counselling for those adults and children most severely affected by the Tsunami

· to provide workshops for teachers and community workers who have care of these children during the day in order to share the expertise of UK Social Workers who are experienced in working with children who have suffered separation and loss and to help them understand and work through this loss, appropriately and safely

· to provide workshops for families and carers who had suffered loss in the Tsunami and to help them to understand and work through this with the children.

4. Selection and Preparation

4.1 A decision was taken by Cabinet to send 6 Social Workers to Hambantota in April 2005. Members of the Hampshire County Council Emergency Planning unit together with the Human Resources Department had already been planning for this possibility since January 2005 when Social Work staff in the Social Services Department had been invited to express their interest in volunteering for such a project in January 2005.

4.2 After an interview with the Assistant Director, another Children and Families Service Manager, the County Emergency Planning Officer and myself, five Social Workers were chosen. I was selected to lead the team not only because of my experience as a childcare Social Worker and Manager, but also because I have lived in Asia and have travelled extensively in South East Asia including Sri Lanka

4.3 The team, having been selected on 13 April 2005 flew to Sri Lanka on 27 April. The timescale was necessarily short because Ian Hoult was anxious that the Team should arrive in Hambantota before the onset of the monsoon which would seriously hamper their ability to work effectively in the two camps.

4.4 The ensuing two weeks were extremely busy primarily and taken up with all members of the team ensuring that their work would be covered in their absence. In addition to this all members needed to arrange for appropriate inoculations- in particular cholera which caused some difficulties for GP surgeries who had to buy in the vaccine. The Emergency Planning Unit also arranged a one day orientation course with a company who specialise in preparing both corporate organisations and GAP year students for working overseas. In addition some team members were interviewed by the press who were very interested in Hampshire County Council's initiative.

4.5 Team Members also put together a pack of resources to take out to Sri Lanka to aid them in both the workshops and the one to one work with children and families. These resources varied from books on attachment theory and bereavement, to worksheets for use in direct work with children, to a "parachute" to be used in therapeutic games with both children and adults. In addition we were to take a HCC laptop which would hopefully be used to link via the internet with Hantsnet and thus keep the team in touch with the UK.

4.6 As stated previously the team, together with Ian Hoult, flew out to Sri Lanka on 27 April 2005. The 10 hour flight was then followed by an 8 hour drive. Although Hambantota is only 150 miles from Columbo the roads are very poor and travelling hazardous particularly after the Tsunami affected the whole of the western, southern and eastern coasts of Sri Lanka. Despite this long journey and arriving in Hambantota after midnight work started immediately with a meeting with the Chairman of the Urban Council the next day.

5. Fact finding and Networking in Hambantota

5.1 As stated previously Ian Hoult had already visited Hambantota in March 2005 and was able to introduce the team to Mr Gamini, chairman of the Urban District Council.

5.2 Mr Gamini then arranged a further meeting with the main non government organisations working in Hambantota and in the two camps, particularly the Buddhist Foundation of Taiwan, World Vision and the Christian Children's Foundation. In addition to this Lynn Ludford and Ian Hoult attended a meeting chaired by UNICEF who coordinate the activities of the NGO's in Sri Lanka and are attempting to achieve consistency in approach. Lynn Ludford continues to receive the minutes of these meetings and thus has the ongoing opportunity to contribute to the development of counselling services to the people in that region.

5.3 After two meetings with Mr Gamini it was clear that his objective was that we should design a programme of working with children affected by the Tsunami for teachers (7-18 years), pre-school teachers (3-7 years), community workers (NGO's and local volunteers) and families and carers of the children. He wanted us to design and deliver this via a series of Workshops which we would need to present over the following two weekends. He was less interested in direct work with children and adults and understandably wanted us to reach as many people as possible. His desired aim was for us to impart as much knowledge as we could to those working with and caring for the children who had lost one or more parents in the Tsunami. In particular he wanted us to talk about the theory underpinning our work with children who had suffered separation and loss in the UK and share ideas and innovative ways of working with both children and adults.

5.4 As well as meeting with the non government organisations and members of the Urban District Council, it was essential for the team to meet the people of Hambantota. On 30 April we were invited into both camps and were introduced to families and children by our two interpreters. One of our interpreters proved to be a valuable asset because not only was he able to interpret and translate but was a trusted and well liked Buddhist volunteer community worker in both camps. He had been in Hambantota on 26 December 2004 and had worked tirelessly for three days pulling bodies from wreckage in the aftermath of the Tsunami.

5.5 We were struck by the welcome that we received from the people. They were ready and willing to share with us their stories which they did in a simple and moving way. One elderly lady told us of her entire family being washed away in four minutes, her grandchildren, daughter and her husband and her own sister. She was the only surviving member of her family with only a few possessions left. She proudly showed us their photos displayed in front of her tent and cried as she told the story.

5.6 The children were immediately intrigued by our presence and were fascinated about some of the play equipment we had bought from the UK, particularly the parachute which I will refer to later in this report.

5.7 It became immediately obvious that we could have spent the entire three weeks doing individual work with both adults and children who had become `stuck' in the cycle of grief. Little counselling had been offered other than support of largely untrained volunteers. Adults still `searching' for unrecovered loved ones were fearful of another Tsunami and some (adults and children) suffered from nightmares about the moment the wave struck.

5.8 We did identify a number of vulnerable individuals and families who needed immediate input from us and some sessions were held with these people. One man was experiencing behaviour problems with his 11 year old son after the Tsunami. Through two sessions the first with him alone and the second with him and his son explored the family experience of loss in the Tsunami and helping the man understand his sons responses to this. Another lady ( in addition to the elderly lady mentioned earlier in this report) had lost her entire family and had no one to turn to for support. Her sense of isolation was exacerbated by the fact that she was in a tent next to other families who had survived and when we spoke to her initially she felt she had little to live for. She had a session with two workers from the team who encouraged her to share her feelings about her loss. It is likely that this is the first time she had spoken about these since the Tsunami. When we went to say goodbye to her, although still sad, she told us that she had decided to plant a shrub to remember each family member lost.

5.9 However, our main objective and that of the Chairman of the Urban Council was that we should deliver the workshops as outlined in 5.3 above. Through the workshops, in the limited time we had available, we would be able to reach more people and leave work behind to be carried on by families, teachers and community workers.

6. The Workshops

6.1 Mr Gamini together with Lynn Ludford and Lorraine Hopkin negotiated the use of a school hall having decided that his first choice of venue the library, was not appropriate. The library ,whilst central, had been partially destroyed in the Tsunami and had limited facilities (no electricity or washrooms).

6.2 In all 150 people attended the four Workshops. As stated above these were carried out in a school hall where there was no air conditioning and limited washroom facilities. On one occasion there was no electricity which made working and participating very arduous due to the lack of overhead fans.

6.3 Each Workshop was adapted to suit the needs of each group of participants. Thus the first Workshop delivered to teachers of the older age group of children was more theoretical in approach concentrating on the Assessment Framework and less on the concepts of play therapy. The second and third Workshops included less theory, (although introduced the notion of the cycle of grief) and included more play therapy for younger children. The final Workshop for families, parents and carers included a long section on grief and memories, the occurrence of the Tsunami itself, exercises on working together and some play therapy involving sea water. For exact details and a programme of each workshop please see Appendix 4.

6.4 An important element of the Workshops was the introduction of games and worksheets for both adults and children in helping them come to terms with their grief in a healthy way. Whilst it was universally acknowledged that these were useful tools for dealing with the unresolved grief of children there was some scepticism expressed about the usefulness of these games in particular in helping adults. However all adults who experienced the Workshops came to see the usefulness of these games in helping them come to terms with difficult issues such as sharing their problems by talking to a neighbour or touching and smelling sea water for the first time since the Tsunami.

7. Evaluation

7.1 As the reputation of the Workshops grew in Hambantota more and more adults attended each session. Initially we informed Mr Gamini that we would not be able to deal with more than 30 participants in any one session. However on two occasions we had over 45 participants. This made both the teaching and the play elements more difficult to carry out particularly since all work was via a translator.

7.2 The success of the Workshops was dependent on the commitment, flexibility and resourcefulness of the entire team including our translator Kusumsiri and our driver Lal. As stated above the facilities in the school hall were limited with no access to power point, overhead projector or even a flip chart. All resources used in the games were either bought by the team from the UK or purchased in local hardware stores using local "props" (e.g .rope made from coconut eggs, wire, buckets and sieves). The pack was prepared using the laptop and a small photocopying shop in the town.

7.3 At a final meeting with Chairman Gamini he made it clear that the Workshops had been very well received and gave a view that we should return to deliver more Workshops and refine them according to ever changing need. He was also very impressed with some of the resources we had bought from the Uk particularly the "parachute" and the "magic mat". Please see separate e-mail's to the Director of Social Services, Terry Butler and to Lynn Ludford outlining the Urban District Council's thanks to the Tsunami Support Team entitled Appendices 6 and 7.

7.4 One of the NGO's, World Vision, was anxious to stay in touch with us and wanted more information on Child Protection and Keep Safe Work. CCF (The Christian Children's Foundation)were fascinated by our ability to use play creatively as a therapeutic tool and wanted more input from us in their "Child Centred Places."

7.5 UNICEF asked that we left them a copy of our pack intending to use it in the development of their work in Sri Lanka. As an organisation they are doing valuable work in conjunction with the Sri Lankan government trying to ensure that non government organisations work together to provide a consistent approach to supporting children and their families affected by the Tsunami.

7.6 Finally when we visited both camps to say goodbye it became clear that those who had attended the workshops had found them both useful and enjoyable. In one camp we were greeted with demonstrations of the `warm up' exercise we had played with them and one man told us he had just been talking with his neighbours about us and our workshop. In the other camp both children and adults came out to join us in our last parachute game which was specifically designed to get children and adults working together and symbolised support from across the World. One participant of the workshops wrote that she wished to work with us `forever'.

8. Conclusion

8.1 This three week visit to Hambantota, Sri Lanka, by six Social Workers from the Social Services Department of Hampshire County Council did achieve its objectives as outlined in section 3.5.

8.2 The focus of the three weeks was spent on designing and delivering the Workshops rather than on individual work with children and adults. However because of the limited time that the team had in Hambantota this work represented only a beginning. Relationships were made with the local people and trust had been gained.

8.3 We were the first aid agency who had arrived in Hambantota since the Tsunami who had no other resource than themselves to offer. Once the local people understood that we did not have money, huts or food to distribute but that we had our expertise and experience to offer, they worked with us unreservedly. Above all we listened to their stories of loss, empathised with them and enabled them to help themselves by talking to them about the process of grieving and rebuilding their lives.

8.4 At a national level we have been asked to contribute to the preparation of other teams going out to Sri Lanka from colleague Local Authorities. Via the ADSS we have continued to share Hampshire County Council's now considerable experience of responding to this disaster in South East Asia. On a personal level the practice of every member of the team has been enhanced by the experience and this will be shared with colleagues across Hampshire County Council via presentations and training.

Recommendations:

That the cabinet:

· considers sending a further team of Social Workers to evaluate the work done so far in order to refine and develop the programme to suit the changing needs of the people of Hambantota;

· this team should be sent out to Sri Lanka no later than August 2005.This would enable time for the programme to have been in operation for two months but would not allow too much time to elapse so that valuable networking links and the maintenance of progress would be lost;

· this work would be enhanced if three members of the current team were able and willing to return to Hambantota. Valuable time could be saved by the links that those people already have made locally in Hambantota and nationally via UNICEF, the British High Commission and the Sri Lankan Government;

· this team should strive to continue to work with organisations like UNICEF and the Sri Lankan government to develop adequate Child Protection procedures in Sri Lanka and ensure that all NGO's working in Tsunami affected areas adhere to these policies and procedures; and

· in addition to refining and developing the Workshops as outlined above this team would broaden work already started with identified vulnerable adults as well as children. They would be able to make links with already stretched psychology services and ensure that these people get the help that they need.

LD/8.6.05