Counsellors narrate trauma stories of flood survivors

KOZHIKODE: School counsellors Ligy Augustine and Divya A.A. never been had such an experience while dealing with trauma survivors. The ‘story’ they heard from the people who escaped the landslides and flood at Karinchola has all the ingredients of a Hollywood movie.

“The huge sound of boulders falling on houses, gushing of water, running for life, screaming…everything they said are afresh on our mind,” says a counsellor dealing with the flood survivors as a part of the psychological first aid programme of woman and child development and social justice departments. 

“Salim and Shereena lost their two kids, and their trauma is unexplainable. They found all their things, including even neatly covered notebooks of their kids from the debris but not the lives. Shareena wept, saying her 9-year-old daughter could not cry before the concrete fell on her,” says Ligy. 

Ms Divya has the story of Abdunasser and Nuzaiba to narrate. “The couple along with their son had to stand on just a few feet of lands between the landslide on one side and flood on the other,” she said. 

“When they fell into the slush pool, the three searched for some support to rise. But what they caught thinking as ropes were snakes came along with the landslide.”

The family was rescued, but their house swept away.  “Many survivors are under scare. A cloudy sky is coming back to their memories, especially the kids,” added Ms Ligy. 

The counsellor who visited Balussery narrated how a family had to return to their submerged house in an alarming situation from a relative’s house after their mentally challenged kid cannot adjust at their relative’s residence. As many as 3,653 flood-survived families were given counselling in the first phase by 107 counsellors. 

They were trained under the district mental health programme by experts from NIMHANS and IMHANS. Haritha Mission district coordinator Prakashan P., DCPO Joseph Rebello and others spoke.