Families
and Survivors of Tsunami
ＦＡＳＴ Project
ＦＡＳＴ Ｃｏｕｎｔｒｙ Ｐｒｏｊｅｃｔｓ
Ｉｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎ ｔｏ ＦＡＳＴ Project
Early
in 2005, the International Federation of Social Workers and Commonwealth Organisation
for Social Work launched a special project to support the recovery programme
from the
FAST is supported in
principle, and collaborates with international and national organizations．The focus
of the project is on the needs of the children, youth and families. Entire
communities have to come to terms with and adjust to unimaginable loss and
grief. Urgent action is needed to provide individual emotional support and
mental health services to those immediately affected. Experience around the
world shows that work to help the community give expression to this loss and to
cope with it will be essential. We must also ensure that accurate information
is available about services appropriate for all affected groups.
The
strategy is to ensure social-emotional support, advocacy and planning and
capacity building for family and community recovery. The twin focus of action
will be community level support for long term recovery and rebuilding and
support for local social workers in reaching out to and assisting those who are
vulnerable.
Social Work Perspective
Social work seeks to enhance community expertise and empowerment
in the decision making process through all stages of planning, intervention and
recovery. Building on the strengths and resilience of individuals, families and
the local community is at the heart of social work practice. International
assistance is essentially collaborative with national/local partners in a
consultancy role and in training/support/research and evaluation.
Social workers have much to contribute based on knowledge base, skills, and
value base. Social workers can intervene at the individual, group and family,
community and policy levels. Intervention/consultation will be guided by the
values and code of ethics of social work as well as by disaster recovery
principles derived from research on the global experience of disaster
management. Social workers are involved in the relief work through NGOs
and government agencies as well as through their professional networks.
FAST deals
with some of the following issues,
tasks, priorities:
* Assessment of social emotional impact and needs
* Planning short term interventions in response to grief, loss and trauma
reactions
* Work alongside agencies providing medium term interventions for communities
and within temporary shelters to develop temporary communities
* Support for people through the grieving process, providing information,
assessing vulnerable people and referring for intervention/treatment
* Support and placement of and therapeutic work with orphaned and unattached
children, adolescents, people who have lost marriage partners and other close
relatives
* Support and placement of and therapeutic work with people with physical
disabilities and/or mental/intellectual disabilities and older people
* Assisting in education, research and evaluation, as well as documenting the
event and process.
The plans
have been developed in consultation with social workers, social work
organizations, and with other NGOs, in the countries affected. The form
of the projects funded by FAST has been in the area of training, direct
intervention as well as community education.
ＦＡＳＴ Project Accounts
FAST Ｐｒｏｊｅｃｔ Ｐｒｏｐｏｓａｌ