For a personal and community development: training of the volunteer in a context of disasters

Since June 2000 a team of the association "Appartenances" (Lausanne, Switzerland) has taken part in a program of Psychosocial Intervention in Turkey in the area affected by the earthquakes in 1999, under the patronage of the International Federation of the Red Cross.

The team is responsible for the training of voluntary persons who have the function of health promoters in their respective communities. This work is based on two pillars. At a theoretical level it is based on the principles and concepts of the Social Community Psychology and the Popular Education. At a methodological level it relies on a prevention and health promotion experience in the war zones in Nicaragua, which date back to the end of the 80s and on other similar experiences developed in Switzerland in the 90s in the sphere of migration and political asylum.

In that way, the intervention is intended for collectivities, giving priorities to prevention and health promotion in comparison to therapy; favoring the participation of citizens in the analysis of the problems that concern them and searching for alternatives through participatory diagnosis.

Relating to the methodology, the personal and group experience constitute the lines of training that get to be constructed through an interactive group process, in a context of security and reciprocal trust. First the experiences linked to the earthquakes are worked out allowing expression of pain and legitimizing their suffering. Then we facilitate the understanding of reactions and symptoms, identifying the strategies of coping and the means available at an individual, family, community and social level. Finally a reflection on the principles and the lines of action that guide the work in the community is done.

This perspective is not easy. It often requires a readjustment of the traditional role of the psychologist and social workers, by the professional themselves, as well as by the community itself.

In our report we would like to present our theoretical frame, to put into evidence the aims of the project and the precursor experiences, to comment on the results we obtained, and to share a series of reflections related to our practice, about prevention and health promotion in the context of disasters.