Healing the helpers

The aftershocks continue night and day following Chile’s 8.8 earthquake on February 27, even though more than a month has passed. On Sunday night, a 4.8 tremor with an epicenter near Santiago set windows rattling and the overhead lamps swaying.

In the days right after the quake, many people slept outside, fully clothed. People are less jumpy now, but the anxieties surface every time the ground shakes. Some people stand frozen in concentration, trying to ascertain whether the rumbling will increase as they mentally trace a path to the nearest exit. Others jump at the first tremor, sprinting out the door (or to the door frame). Children startle awake and run for their parents’ beds — if the parents haven’t reached them first.

Thousands of people are still living in, or alongside, damaged structures that may not withstand another jolt. Makeshift shelters can also topple under the force of lesser tremors that just weeks ago would have been considered substantial jolts.

Our colleagues from the Educacion Popular en Salud (EPES) Center in Concepción made their first trip out of the quake-stricken region last week to attend a workshop in Santiago on ethical conduct in distribution of humanitarian aid. (EPES is Mercy Corps' local partner in Chile.)

Sandra Castañeda, health educator, is slightly apologetic when she tells us how difficult it was for her to make the trip. “It was hard for me to leave my family, even for this short trip,” she says. “For example, I have made the journey by overnight bus dozens of times, this time I felt I just had to travel by day.”

“There’s still an ache inside of me that harbors fear,” she explains.

Sandra, who grew up in France — far from the earthquakes of her native Chile — tells us frankly about feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of the disaster and the urgency of the needs, both at home and in the communities where EPES works.

Stranded far from her home when the quake hit, it took Sandra several days to cross the city under 18-hour curfews. Her house was standing but damaged, its contents smashed. There was water and food to find, safety to be secured, comfort to be given.

Even after basic services and logistical complications were resolved, “it took me a week to be able to focus.”

One thing that helped put Sandra on back on track was the support she received when the EPES team visited a shelter to offer counseling to the newly homeless.

“I asked Liliana (the EPES professional in charge of the counseling) to dedicate some time to me and my family,” says Sandra. “Although we didn’t lose our homes, we were also affected by the earthquake. We also need the support we are offering others. “

Healing the healers is one of the first steps that EPES will take when as it prepares to train its staff and other community mentors to use Mercy Corps’ Comfort for Kids and Moving Forward programs for children and teens. The first sessions will begin next week.

Not everyone finds it easy to acknowledge his or her fragility and seek some professional support. Men and teenage boys, in particular, are less inclined to do so — an interesting twist on the conventional interpretation of what it means to incorporate a gender perspective into post-traumatic stress services.

And while women may be more forthcoming about seeking support for their shattered nerves, they also find it more difficult to leave home to receive counseling — especially as the ground continues to shake.

This is what EPES discovered when it organized a support workshop for health promoters it has trained in Hualpén, Penco, Talcahauno over the past three decades.

“Many women tell us that they do need counseling and that they very much want to attend,” says Dr. Lautauro López, director of the EPES Center in Concepción. “But they are unwilling to leave their families at home, paralyzed by the shock, afraid of aftershocks.”

Healing the healers is one of the first steps that EPES will take as it starts to train its staff and other community-based mentors in Mercy Corps’ Comfort for Kids and Moving Forward programs for children and teens.

Trainers Eric Loc and Fabián Vinces arrived to Chile on Monday from Peru to get a first-hand look at Concepción and start adapting the methodology to local circumstances. Both have worked with youths and communities following the 2007 quake in Pisco, Peru.

The Chilean tragedy, while not as tragic in terms of deaths, has its special horrors — for example, coastal communities affected by the tsunami must live with the daily reminder of the destructive power of the sea. Compared to Haiti, the devastation in terms of lives and material damage is less extensive. But the Chilean earthquake was more powerful and “that one degree difference on the geologists’ scale translates into a cataclysm 10 times more powerful for the person experiencing it,” Eric explains.

What’s more, Chile is a country with a history of devastating quakes, where almost every generation has witnessed the fury of colliding seismic fault lines.

“It’s not enough to generate empathy and solidarity only,” Fabián believes. “We also address preparedness and prevention.”