2005 REPORT ON THE TSUNAMI EFFORT
During the past year, with help from funds contributed to Health Frontiers for Tsunami relief, an expert group of volunteer Medical and Nursing faculty from Khon Kaen University in Northeast Thailand have built a long term Tsunami relief program in the hard hit Ranong area in Southern Thailand.
The program has been centered on a supervised “Children’s Safe Space”, designed to help restore normalcy and stability for Tsunami impacted children. The program is still serving an average of 30 children per day, with activities such as games, music, art work and reading, and plans are to keep it open for another year. In addition, a small truck has been equipped as a mobile library, which serves the children in surrounding villages.
Meanwhile, the faculty volunteers have been working with the local schools to develop psychosocial programs for the children, with evaluations and therapeutic interventions for the most anxious and depressed. Plans are to follow these children for at least two years.
These efforts in a Southern Thai community have also led to a compelling effort in the far North, where the project is now helping to support 100 orphans in Nakonrn Panam, whose parents had been working in the Ranong area, and were lost in the Tsunami.
The leaders of this volunteer project are Dr Srivieng Pairojkul of the Faculty of Medicine and Dr. Pulsuk Siripul of the Faculty of Nursing at Khon Kaen University. They are part of the international group of volunteer faculty, organized by Karen Olness of Health Frontiers, who over the past decade have conducted training in eight countries on the special needs of children in disasters.