A team of volunteer counsellors from Hong Kong is heading to Japan to offer immediate psychological help to earthquake and tsunami victims and to train locals to help the Japanese themselves deal with the trauma in the long run.
The 21-strong team from the Post Crisis Counselling Network is the first in Hong Kong to get approval from Japan to help in the relief work. The team plans to visit the quake-hit area for five days from April 14.
Timothy To Wing-ching, executive director for the network, said the need for emotional and psychological assistant was urgent.
The group received an e-mail from a Japanese fireman in Fukushima saying people were desperate. More than 10,000 evacuees living in three small temporary shelters were running out of food and they had no idea how long it would last, the e-mail said.
Farmers in Fukushima were in despair over their vegetables being banned from the marketplace because of possible contamination from radioactive soil.
'One just committed suicide and many are thinking of that as a way out,' To said. 'They now need much more than material help.'
The eight counsellors and social workers on the team will offer psychological help to victims and offer free training to at least 100 locals, To said.