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In Japan, Israelis Bring Trauma Expertise to Tsunami Victims

(JTA) Boaz Arad - On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake struck off the coast of eastern Japan. Arriving in Japan shortly after the disaster, the Israeli NGO IsraAID's small team of volunteers has supplied medical relief items, provided training to handle post-traumatic stress disorder and organized art, music, movement and drama therapy sessions for residents of the many small towns devastated by the tsunami. The sessions, which utilize a mostly nonverbal approach to help people express their feelings, have been so successful that IsraAID is now planning to operate a training center for at least another year and a half. "Israel, sadly, is pretty much a trauma lab," says Meirav Tal-Margalit, an IsraAID volunteer and movement therapist who works with residents of the rocket-stricken Israeli town of Sderot. "We have extensive experience in this field, and the tools we use here have been proven effective worldwide....We make cultural adaptations, of course, but in the end we are all human and we share the same fears and the same dreams." "The main idea behind our activities is to supply the Japanese with the therapeutic tools and the know-how to help them deal with the trauma themselves," says project manager Yotam Polizer. "We locate local community leaders and professionals from the health and education sectors, and work directly with them. They then use what they learn and pass it on to many more people than we can reach on our own." Chiho Shimura, who left her business in Tokyo to volunteer with survivors in her native Ishinomaki, a badly devastated port city, said, "We've had Japanese social workers come here and talk to people, but they were not able to do what the Israelis have done. They immediately saw into our hearts. They definitely saw into mine."
2012-02-24 00:00:00
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