Tibet

Barely had we returned from Haiti when news arrived of another large quake on the Tibetan Plateau. Even before I called our Chinese headquarters they were already preparing teams to go and help with the initial relief. Though Qinghai is considered a region of China it is largely ethnically Tibetan so once again we were going to take the OperationSAFE program cross-culturally into a new environment. But the difficulties only started with languages and culture, even more daunting was the physical environment at over 4000 meters. For many of our lowland Chinese volunteers and for myself the high altitude would prove quite demanding.

Over the summer months we were able to hold OperationSAFE in three locations on the Tibetan plateau and train numerous volunteers in emotional first-aid. Once again I was struck by the prevalence of trauma in the daily lives of the children – not just from the quake but from abandonment, abuse and extreme poverty.

A natural disaster provides a clear and present opportunity to address the needs of a community. They understand their need and welcome outsiders bringing help. It also provides a number of other things that are realities of humanitarian work; a disaster brings attention which translates into more funding, and more people willing to volunteer. However, our goal is that through training volunteers for disaster work, they might connect with the plight of the people they are helping, see past the disaster and recognize how they can continue to help these children long after the disaster is a distant memory.