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Helping tsunami-affected-children in Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Wilis Srisayekti
Padjadjaran University, Bandung, Indonesia
Presented at 26thInternational congress of Applied Psychology 16-21July 2006, Athens, Greece
Introduction
In December 2004, tsunami in Aceh destroyed some areas physically, and affected people’s life. Multiple losses were experienced by many people such as friends and family member, material possessions and homes, educational opportunities and a sense of security. It could be said that it had the characteristics of natural disasters.
The capital city of the Aceh’s Province, Banda Aceh, was the most populated city in Aceh. It was the most destructed city during that disaster. Besides, it was also the city with the biggest amount of the Internal Displaced Persons (IDP), as Banda Aceh was the main destination of the IDP from the other affected areas in the province. In Banda Aceh, the IDP were gathered and managed in several centers for facilitating aids.
In the first 40 days, the professionals available were limited especially for the big amount of the IDP. Considering the psychological vulnerability of the IDP, during this emergency situation no study was allowed.
During this period, the helping efforts should be organized in such a way so that they could cover not only as many centers as possible cut also they could touch as many IDP as possible. The presentation will share the psychological work with tsunami-affected-children during the emergency period in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
Methods
The works focused on the psychosocial approach of intervention, applying
the counseling methods from Brammer (1985), Capuzzi & Gros (1992), Geldard (1993), Orton (1997), and based on the psychological development of the children (see
