Mennonite Central Committee

Teachers and students benefit from post-tsunami trauma training. (Photo by Michelle Sensenig)

Teachers and students benefit from post-tsunami trauma training

Michelle Sensenig
October 31, 2007

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia – In a high school in this tsunami-devastated city, Rusmi, a religion teacher, noted a marked difference in her students’ behavior after the tsunami. Some became more quiet and serious while others become more hyper and active.

Using tools she learned in a weeklong counselor training seminar sponsored by MCC and a local education and community center (PKPM), Rusmi continues to meet one-on-one with students, helping them to move forward.

“This was my first experience with trauma counseling,” Rusmi said of the training, which was “It has been very helpful for me to know how to deal with students who have problems.”

Forty students and seven teachers from the school died as a result of the tsunami. Today, Rusmi says, “It seems that the evidence of the trauma is beginning to fade.”

The school began a program providing free time for the students to do something that interests them: cooking, sewing, sports, art, music and dance. She notes that these activities help the students to relax and become happy again.

Rusmi would like to continue her studies in trauma counseling. She hopes that other teachers can take part in this counseling program and that her students can turn toward the future. “I just hope that the students can study and become successful people and that their traumatic experiences will fade.”