Healer of the minds and the hearts

Jeyathesan Kulasingam, 43, a Malaysian staff member of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society (IFRC), was preparing to rotate out of Indonesia. He had worked in reconstruction there after the 2004 tsunami, and chose China for his next posting.

He arrived on July 20, 2008, and was surprised. Survivors he talked to in hospitals were already thinking of rebuilding and planning their next steps. Grassroots and international non-governmental organizations were already working to help people recover mentally.

Kulasingam believes that kind of recovery is a long-term process, and he started working with Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) to help people in Sichuan's disaster areas return to normal life in terms of their mental health.

He helped design psychosocial programs and implement activities to speed the rebuilding of networks among groups, such as children, women or elderly people. Other activities were developed to identify people who needed psychological treatment to deal with depression.

"But it's not a one-off thing and we do it every day," Kulasingam says.

It is not just about having fun and playing games, he says, but a program that systematically brings people to see the process of healing and readjustment. "We have dealt with people who lost their legs and hands and helped them accept the fact and come back to life."

One is a woman from Mianzhu city who had suffered multiple fractures in her leg. When Kulasingam met her in October 2008, she was afraid to be treated because she didn't think she could recover. She dismissed the idea of surgery.

Kulasingam and his team visited her and her family frequently and explained to her how, if she recovered, she could again participate in work and family life. They went with her to physiotherapy sessions to provide encouragement. Finally, the woman agreed to have surgery during the Spring Festival in 2009.

Two weeks after the festival, she opened a small store in front of her house. When Kulasingam met her then, he saw a confident and smiling person. Now she walks without a cane and her injured leg is becoming strong.

"We are touched and encouraged by the progress of people," Kulasingam says.

Those who provide help also progress, he says. As an experienced delegate of IFRC - he started with Red Cross 30 years ago, in primary school, as a volunteer - Kulasingam has worked develop local Red Cross societies by training staff members.

At the beginning, he says, the programs were strange and the staff members were reluctant. "They have to depend on the senior people like me," he says, and now they have taken the leadership of the programs.

That makes Kulasingam believe his program is sustainable and institutionalized. "Nobody is waiting for something, but moving on. They keep progressing."

In time, the local Red Cross societies can run their programs independently and won't need his technical assistance. Then Kulasingam can move on to his next post.

Gao qihui