LONDON (AlertNet) – On the anniversary of an enormous earthquake that killed almost 31,000 people in southeastern Iran, the people of Bam are still struggling with the emotional toll of the tragedy.

In economic terms, the town is on its way to recovery, but the anniversary on December 26 is bringing difficult memories to the surface.

“People are still traumatised, even a year after the earthquake,” said Thorir Gudmunsson, who was in Bam for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in the lead-up to the anniversary.

“It’s so important not just to think about rebuilding houses, but also about providing mental health support.”

Aid workers paint a picture of a city haunted by the ghosts of a disaster that destroyed almost all of Bam’s buildings, wiped out entire extended families and left thousands of children orphaned.

“Thousands of people go every Thursday and sit by the tombstones,” Gudmunsson said. “Women are crying. It’s really a dramatic scene.

“The town was for all intents and purposes completely destroyed. So it’s going to take many, many years before it reaches any kind of normalcy.”

TROUBLE SLEEPING

The IFRC said the psychological fallout from the earthquake included sleep disorders, domestic violence and drug abuse.

“Practically every family in the city of almost 120,000 has lost a parent, a child, a sibling or a friend,” it said in a statement, adding that many people were still unable to carry out their normal social functions.

Bam’s children are back at school, in temporary buildings, but aid workers say their mental health remains shaky. Children have particular needs, but tend to show their suffering in similar ways to adults.

“They are withdrawn, don’t communicate, (and) display aggressive or explosive behaviour,” Gudmunsson said.

But through play therapy, children are being encouraged to open up.

In a move Gudmunsson said could serve as a model for future emergencies, the IFRC started providing psychological support immediately after the earthquake.

It was the first time the IFRC movement had deployed extensive mental health programmes as part of its initial disaster relief strategy.

Counselling centres run by the Iranian Red Crescent provide individual sessions, as well as painting, sewing and computer classes and play therapy for the children.

Estimating that 3,000 children lost both parents in the earthquake, Patrick Parsons, project coordinator of British-based medical charity Merlin, said many children were living in orphanages in Bam and nearby Kerman, while others had been taken in by relatives.

He said a significant number of the children being cared for by orphanages had parents who were alive, but were unable to look after their kids because of drug problems or because they were in rehabilitation centres.

DRUG ADDICTION

Bam lies on the smuggling route westwards from Aghanistan and Pakistan, and aid workers say addiction to heroin and other opium derivatives has increased dramatically since the earthquake.

“Many children lost their parents to the earthquake, and many children have lost their parents to drug addiction,” Gudmunsson said.

Relief professionals say the approaching anniversary of the earthquake has been upsetting for the town’s residents, stirring up painful memories. Various events are scheduled from December 24 to 26 to mark the day.

“Everybody lost someone,” Gudmunsson said. “A lot of people lost many of their closest relatives. There are people who were buried under the rubble and got out alive, but their family members were also buried in their own homes and died.”

A photographer has worked with Merlin through the year, helping Bam’s people to take pictures of their daily lives. An exhibition of these photos has traveled to Britain and within Iran. It will return to Bam to mark the anniversary.

“We’ve had a very good reaction,” Parsons said. “People are pleased that they’ve had a part in it.”

PREFAB HOUSES

Some 75,000 people were left homeless by the earthquake, and many people are still living in camps of prefabricated houses on the outskirts of Bam.

“Houses are fairly small and temporary, but not too bad,” said Gudmunsson. “Large-scale construction is awaiting a green light from the authorities.”

He said people were living in and around their old homes. In some cases, people were camped in the large gardens that many houses had in order to grow date palms, he added.

Date trees are crucial to the livelihoods of people in Bam.

“As luck would have it, they were not very badly affected,” Parsons said. “So hopefully by next season they’ll have restored their stores.

“After next summer, they will be well on the way to recovery. Not a full recovery, but a recovery of sorts. There is a very, very strong will in the people to get their lives back together, for their families.”

Parsons said many people moved from Bam to rural areas after the earthquake.

He said Merlin had decided to concentrate its health projects in nearby rural areas because of the strain this migration put on local facilities.

“People are still nervous about returning to their houses.”

For example, he said that local nurses – known as behrvaz -- would work in buildings but did not want to sleep in them.

NGOS LEAVE

Gudmunsson said a new hospital -- under construction when the earthquake struck – had been lightly damaged and was expected to open in the first half of 2005.

At this point, he said, the IFRC hospital that has been operating since day three after the earthquake would be packed up and taken to Tehran, ready to serve as a mobile hospital if another emergency hits the region.

Many international NGOs provided emergency relief in the earthquake’s immediate aftermath, but most withdrew after three or six months.

Parsons said at least eight international NGOs were still present in Bam, including Mercy Corps, Dutch NGO Cordaid, Caritas and Relief International.

Action by Churches Together, the Canadian Catholic Organisation for Development and Peace, International Blue Crescent of Turkey, Malteser of Germany, Swiss-based Medair, U.S.-based Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and World Vision also operate in Bam.

“Twelve months later, signs of the devastation are still evident, not just in the collapsed buildings but in people’s minds,” said Mohammed Mukhier, head of delegation for the IFRC in Iran.