As I write this letter, the devastating consequences of the terrible tragedy caused by the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean are becoming clear. The death toll stands at nearly 100,000, thousands more my die from disease and over a million are homeless with their homes shattered and their possessions destroyed. According to the BBC website, children may account for more than one third of those killed and many more are at risk from disease. The following quotes, taken from the website, provide a vivid illustration of how chaotic and frightening the situation must have been for them:

"Some children were too weak to cling on to their families, homes or trees as
huge waves struck."
"Others could not run fast enough to outpace the rushing water which flooded
villages and beaches where they played. For the survivors, many now orphaned,
disease poses the biggest threat."
"Lots of children on that Sunday morning would have been playing along the
beaches and were just swept away. They wouldn't have been strong enough
to grab hold of things and wouldn't have been able to swim against the tide."

Laura Conrad of the UK charity Save the Children. Czech model Petra Nemcova told the New York Daily News how a wall of water hit the Thai resort of Khao Lak:

"People were screaming and kids were screaming all over the place, screaming
help, help... And after a few minutes you didn't hear the kids any more."

When you read this letter, in late January 2005, I am sure that the situation will have calmed down, the effects of the disaster will have long since left the front pages of the newspapers and the TV and radios will be filled with other, hopefully less catastrophic, news. But of course the impact of the dreadful tragedy will cause pain and suffering to the affected areas for many years. None more so than for the children who have witnessed the whole thing, who have lost close relatives and friends and who have to make sense of their changed and uncertain world. At these times I am struck by the potential contribution that ISPA can make towards helping countries recover from such tragedies. The recent earthquake and its effects prompted me to re-visit our website and I was struck by the wealth of information that it contains on helping people to cope with disasters. Much of this is sound practical advice that should help families, schools and NGOs to understand the potential impact that such disasters can have on children and it provides helpful advice on how to help children to come to terms with the situation. I urge all ISPA members to visit the site, to browse though the materials and to send those that they feel would be most appropriate to friends and colleagues who live in the affected areas.

For me personally the tragedy is particularly poignant. For, in early December I spent four days in Chennai (Madras) which is one of the most severely affected areas in South India. I have already written to my hosts and their friends expressing my condolences and my heart felt hope that they and their families are all OK. I also sent some materials from the ISPA website and hope that these will be of help to them in their work with children and families.

The main purpose of the visit to Chennai was to run a workshop for teachers and parents and to address a conference on early intervention for children with severe disabilities. During my visit I also visited an early intervention centre where around 150 parents and their young children with a variety of learning difficulties attend every day and are given training and support in ways of helping their children to develop. Despite the limited resources, the work I observed was of the highest quality, the children were enjoying their work and the energy and commitment of the parents and staff was inspirational.

Another feature of the visit was the opportunity to have informal discussions with senior teachers, special educators and lecturers about how to improve services for children with disabilities in India. Many of these professionals hold a bachelor's degree in psychology and this, together with their experience with children, provides the basis for them to develop a career as a schools psychologist. However, at present there is no association of school psychologists in India and the profession does not really exist. This is despite the fact that schools and families are crying out for more support and guidance both in the area of severe learning disability but also for children who experience other problems within mainstream school settings. There are clinical psychologists who tend to work in hospital settings but they rarely, if ever, visit schools and other community facilities.

One colleague from Chennai, Dr Jaychandran, whom I also met on a previous visit in 1989, has a PhD in psychology from the USA. He offers consultations to schools and services on assessment and intervention and also lectures at the University. In all respects his work is identical to that of a school psychologist in the UK. Not surprisingly he is interested in developing the profession of school psychology in India and is intending to join ISPA. He expressed a great deal of interest in the ISPA draft standards for professional training in school psychology and I have sent him a copy. It is possible that these could form the basis for the development of a training programme in South India. This would certainly be a step forward. In the meantime we are left to reflect on the consequences of recent events in this part of the world, on our hope that people will recover and move forward and finally on the potential contribution that school psychology, and ISPA in particular, can make towards helping to improve the situation at this difficult time.

Peter Farrell, President of ISPA
December 30th 2004