Mahlet Endale, a second-year doctoral student in counseling psychology at UGA, says she wants to work in the field of international mental health after working with survivors from the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka.

Tsunami: Reaching Out to Those in Need UGA Doctoral Student Mahlet Endale Puts Her Counseling Preparation to Work for Victims of Tsunami in Sri Lanka Nicole Richardson | May 15, 2006

Last February, University of Georgia graduate student Mahlet Endale stood on a white sandy beach half a world away gazing into the crystal clear waters of the Indian Ocean and watching the waves roll gently onto shore. If not for the scattered flip-flops, shredded pieces of clothing and remnants of destroyed buildings littering the idyllic landscape, it might have seemed like just another tropical paradise.

But the debris served as a haunting reminder of the devastation and loss suffered by residents and vacationers here just two months before when a tsunami with waves up to 100 feet high ripped through the region, killing more than 200,000 people in 11 countries.

Watching news reports in the days following the catastrophe, Endale, like many people around the world, wanted to help.

“The tsunami impacted me like nothing ever had before, and I kept thinking there must be something I could do,” recalled Endale, a second-year doctoral student in the College of Education’s counseling psychology program.

Unlike others who sent money, medicine, food and supplies, Endale decided to apply for the Mental Health Outreach Program, a 17-year-old operation designed to provide psychological aid for those impacted by disasters around the world.

“Even though I didn’t have trauma experience, I applied for the program and felt that if they could find a way to use me, I would go,” said Endale. A few weeks later she was selected for the program and notified that she would be going to Sri Lanka, one of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami.

Despite being in the middle of spring semester, Endale completed academic assignments in advance, transferred her counseling clients to other counselors, took necessary shots and raised enough money for a plane ticket to Sri Lanka.

The Mental Health Outreach Program focused on the tsunami victims was developed by Anie Kalayjian, a renowned postdisaster mental health expert and adjunct professor of psychology at Fordham University in Bronx, NY. The program addresses the needs of those whose lives have been directly or indirectly impacted by the tsunami. It places emphasis on helping victims discuss traumatic memories and finding positive meaning in their lives.

Members of the Mental Health Outreach Team Tom Skurky, Endale (C) and Perry Prince

Endale arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on February 20, and the next day drove across the country to Batticaloa. She was assigned to provide psychological aid to those who had resided in the small village of Navaladi. Of the 5,400 people living in Navaladi when the tsunami struck, only 1,200 survived, and they were now residing in camps in Batticaloa.

Before traveling to Sri Lanka, Endale said she couldn’t comprehend what she was going to experience. In fact, it wasn’t until orientation when she was in the village and watched a 10-minute clip of the devastation and the victims that she fully understood.

Having provided counseling services for over two years, pain and destruction are not new to me, but I’d never experienced it at such magnitude all at once,” said Endale. “While watching the video, it hit me what I was getting into. I didn’t sleep that night. I was scared to death. I was thinking, ‘Do I have what it takes to be able to sit with them?’ But once I got in my first session and started talking, I think the counseling mode kicked in, and I thought ‘Yeah, I can do this.’”

While in Sri Lanka, Endale stayed in a local YMCA with other program members. Even though the accommodations were basic, she says it was much better than where the victims were residing – packed into classrooms at Central Methodist College and sleeping on the floor with only scraps of clothing for cushioning.

“When you consider how the people you are working with are living, it puts it more into perspective. Suddenly it doesn’t become as important to have that hot shower – and I love a hot shower, believe me,” she said.

One of Endale’s duties was to help facilitate group discussions with victims. Additionally, she assisted in providing relaxation and breathing techniques to help victims deal with the physiological affects of trauma. Her nights were spent planning the next day’s sessions, taking notes on the day and entering data into files that are being used in Kalayjian’s reports on the project.

Endale conducted both children’s and women’s group sessions. While she had initially thought the children would have the most difficult time dealing with the tsunami, she found them to be more resilient than the adults.

Navaladi Village, located between the ocean and the lagoon, was hit by at least three tidal waves leaving only 1,200 from a population before of 5,400. Fifty percent of the fatalities were children and it was common to hear of people losing up to 40 members of their families.

The purpose of the children’s session was to allow them to tell their stories as verbally as they could. “To facilitate this, we incorporated a lot of expressive arts therapy, sing-alongs and physical activities,” she said.

Thinking about the children with whom she worked continues to be the hardest emotional hurdle Endale has faced since returning from the trip.

“It makes me sad to think about the children. I worry about them because they don’t have the family and safety and structure around them, which kids really need to be okay,” she says. “Their energy is so good though, and they are doing the best with what they have. They still laugh, they still play, and they are able to be kids.”

In the adults, however, Endale did not find that same resilience.

“There is a sense of powerlessness in the adults,” she explains. “They were traumatized by the tsunami, and now they feel victimized by the government.”

Endale notes some of the distress occurring now is because of the government’s plan to relocate many victims to new camps.

“Although the camps are supposed to be temporary, when asked about it, most believe they are going to be permanent tents, away from the ocean, which doesn’t make it suitable for the men and their jobs.”

Endale also found that the demands on the women’s time allowed them less opportunity to focus on themselves and their emotional and psychological healing.

“They had practical difficulties to take care of such as needing to cook, clean, visit the police station to look at pictures of the deceased, and needing to attend to dispersed family members, that they had little time to attend to themselves,” she explains.

In addition to the conditions of the camps, another alarming aspect for Endale was the alcohol abuse by the men. Since many of the men were out to sea when the tsunami struck, their lives were spared. However, the men came back to having almost everything and everyone they knew and loved gone. “Their houses were destroyed, all their family members dead; they have nothing now,” Endale explains. “It was extreme trauma for them, and there wasn’t healthy coping. Now many of the men just get up in the morning and begin drinking until they pass out.”

Endale also noted that because the women are usually the caregivers, many of the men who lost their wives are left without someone to cook and care for them. “The men don’t have any support,” she says.

Children at Mahajina College: Endale worked at this camp for three days doing children’s activities, but these children were so well adjusted that the Mental Health Outreach Team moved to a needier group.

One of the hardest parts about the trip for Endale was leaving, especially after only being in Sri Lanka for three weeks. “I questioned whether or not I had been able to do anything for the people since I was there for only a short time, but when I told the women this on the last day, they surrounded me and cried with me,” she says. “The women thanked me for taking time out of my schedule to listen to them, which they said is something few other people had bothered to do.

“Just listening was enough for these women, even if I couldn’t do something tangible like provide them with food or a house.”

Yet despite only spending a few weeks in Sri Lanka, the lessons learned were life-altering for Endale, both personally and professionally.

For instance, she learned the importance of having a qualified interpreter. “You realize you can’t just bring in someone off the street who knows the languages,” she said.

“You have to find someone familiar with counseling and psychology and dealing with a client.”

She also learned about a non-Western counseling perspective while working with local counselors.

“Unlike the United States, the counseling perspective in Sri Lanka was much more focused on the person’s emotions and relieving those emotions,” she said. “In my experience of counseling, one of the goals is taking control of your life and making needed changes to feel better. With the people of Navaladi, however, so many things were out of their control that, for the most part, they were powerless in effecting change in their own lives. Therefore, we had to help them sit with this and process the emotion of this in addition to processing the loss through the tsunami. Counseling in Sri Lanka also included more of a spiritual and religious component than we do here in the United States.”

This man (foreground) took Endale by boat to see what remained of his home. He was fishing when the tsunami struck. He lost his wife and four children as well as his sister and her family.

Endale, who received a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2001 and a master’s degree in community counseling in 2003 from UGA, plans to pursue a career in international mental health after graduation.

She has worked with refugees in Atlanta before and has focused much of her research on developing protective factors to help refugees succeed rather than focusing on risk factors. She hopes to incorporate her experiences from Sri Lanka into her dissertation and continue to work directly with refugees on mental health issues.

“What I did in Sri Lanka was good practice for what I want to do in the future,” says Endale, who was born in Ethiopia and lived in the Netherlands before moving to the United States when she was nine years old.

Personally, Endale’s experiences in Sri Lanka allowed her to realize firsthand some of the devastation and disasters occurring in other parts of the world.

“Sri Lanka is just one small piece. This stuff is going on all the time in all kinds of different places, but we don’t hear much about it. There are things we can do to help if we are willing to get out of our comfort zones,” she says. “For me personally, it is a responsibility. I have been blessed with so much here, that it is a responsibility for me to do what I can and to give what I have.”

Since returning home Endale has shared her experiences with others in a presentation titled, “Tsunami Aftermath: A UGA Student’s Heartfelt Account of Sri Lanka.” She also hopes to return to Sri Lanka soon.

As for what she wants people to understand most, it is to continue to help the victims.

“Don’t forget. I know the tsunami is already out of the news, but it is not close to being over for the victims. These people are suffering. They have years and years before they are anywhere near where they were before,” she pleads. “I think it is easy for us to go on with our daily lives and not think about it, but they still need a lot of help. If you find yourself in the situation where you are able to provide anything, then do it because there is such a great need.”

© 2006 University of Georgia