Tsunami Relief in the Andaman &

Nicobar Islands, India—Collaboration

With Sangha 

 

             CHART is collaborating with SANGHA (www.sanghaworld.org), a Miami-based non-profit offering medical and psychosocial relief services to  children and families in the tsunami-impacted Andaman & Nicobar islands of India.  In summer 2006 , a CHART art therapist joined the 10-person needs assessment team helping to develop community-based rehabilitation programs through the Port Blair Multiple Rehabilitation Centre . 

Excerpt from diary of Gaelynn Wolf-Bordonaro, Ph.D., ATR

 

Subject: A rainy day in Port Blair, Andaman Islands, India

Date: Thursday, 20 July 2006

 

Our efforts are in full swing, and our days are filled from morning to night.  Each morning, we (an unbelievably wonderful team including an occupational therapist, physical therapist, physician, vision/mobility specialist, hearing specialist, clinical psychologist, film producer, and me-the art therapist!) conduct training sessions for students, case workers, and families.  In the afternoons, we provide assessments for families who have brought their children with disabilities from the far reaches of the islands.  Generally, we work until all the children have received services.  Today, however, we'll shorten the assessment schedule at the hospital, and visit several temporary shelter communities that were built to house the families displaced by the December 2004 tsunami.

 

The devastation on the Nicobar Islands was nearly complete, with whole islands washed away.  It may be a very long time until an infrastructure can be rebuilt to provide the many resources and services needed.  I can imagine basic services for individuals with disabilities follow a long list of priorities.  I am so glad to be here.