AS the anniversary of the great calamity that was Typhoon Yolanda arrives, it is time to think in depth of what work has to be done to rise from the chaos, sorrow and desperation it has wrought. While the Rehabilitation Plan has been signed and is to be implemented, there is much more to be done. I am talking in terms of psychic healing, attending to the broken spirits and pessimism that many survivors carry with them as we speak.

There have been news reports that mental illness among the survivors is a fact and it is no surprise. Suicides, depressions and maybe unreasonable behavior because of mental imbalance are coming to the fore. A human being is both body and spirit, what affects one affects the other. Human beings are also social animals. They thrive or wither on the quality of their relationships. Imagine what has happened – whole families lost to death, many persons never seen again, dead or alive. They have just disappeared, wiped out. They are no longer in one’s life, but they remain in one’s memory. Left are orphans whether young or old. Grandparents with no grandchildren, children without parents, decimated clans. The struggle to live for the survivors is stark and unrelenting. The sudden, drastic, violent and painful absences are gnawing at them as they try to cope with life’s new vicissitudes. The overwhelming cruelty of Nature on virtually defenseless people and their towns and cities is a nightmare that will recur for years if not lifetimes. Something has to be done, the psychic wounds must be addressed, if not to heal them completely, at least to alleviate and to console, to comfort and to care. We have to reach out professionally and personally to bring back hope and will to carry on. These survivors must be given the strength to cope.

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