Sri Lanka: Red Cross community health workers provide health care to tsunami survivors

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By Bernard Barrett, Canadian Red Cross delegate in Sri Lanka

"I am very happy to be able to help the people here during their difficulties," says 31-year-old Mathyvannan Somaheswary, "my desire is to serve population affected by this disaster, particularly those who are not able to take care of themselves."

Mathyvannan Somaheswary is one of the 50 Sri Lankan Red Cross community health workers trained as part of a joint project of the Canadian Red Cross and International Committee of the Red  Cross (ICRC).  They had just completed their formal training and passed their certification exams when the tsunami struck.

She and her colleagues were among those who provided trained assistance in the first hours after the tsunami.  "Because they were already in the area they were able to help in the rescue operations and provide wound dressings to hundreds of people," explains Lily Montano, the Canadian Red Cross health delegate who oversaw the training of the community health workers.

For the first two weeks after December 26,  Mathyvannan worked at the nearby hospital providing dressings and other first aid to the injured.  Since that time, she and one other community health worker have been posted at the Vidiyananda College welfare centre in Mulliawalai to provide basic health services to the 350 families forced to live in the centre after their houses were damaged or destroyed by the tsunami.

Assisted by three volunteers from the Sri Lankan Red Cross, the community health workers provide dressings for injuries and other forms of first aid.  They have also been trained in maternal and child health care, care for the elderly and the handicapped, as well as how to identify more severe illness and high risk pregnancies for appropriate referral.

A good part of their day is spent coaching people on proper hygiene and preventive health care. "Health education is critical to ensure there is no outbreak of infectious diseases," explains Anne Tunbridge, a health delegate from ICRC who regularly visits the welfare centres in the region.

"Several families are living together in a single room and sharing temporary sanitation facilities. They are often in a state of shock, so basic health messages must be reinforced constantly to ensure they maintain proper hygiene habits in this unfamiliar environment," she explains.

During their rounds in the different buildings of the welfare centre, Mathyvannan Somaheswary and her colleagues also urge people to keep their living areas clean, often setting the example by picking up any rubbish they see and encouraging others to join in the clean-up.

In addition, they have received some basic training in counselling techniques. "There is a 70-year-old woman here who lost two children and three grandchildren in the tsunami," she explains.  "When I first met her, she broke down in tears saying she could hear the children calling to her."  Mathyvannan now sets aside time each day to sit with her and listen.

The community health workers are normally based in 19 Red Cross health centres in the area.  Because of the need, they are also working in the welfare centres and will be present in the transit camps when the families move there.

The transit camps are usually located closer to the original villages and will provide each family with a tent offering a degree of privacy not available in the welfare centres.  The camps are managed by local authorities and the ICRC is providing tents as well as water and sanitation facilities for many of the camps.