From Haiti 2010 to Turkey 2023: My 13-Year Journey as a NATAN Volunteer
“This was a different kind of responsibility, one that allowed me to gain fresh experiences and see things from different angles. It made me realize the importance of making these mental health interventions an integral part of every mission.”
Einav Levy lives in Herzliya, Israel and has over 20 years of experience in managing projects related to emergencies and community well-being, particularly within the interface between NGOs, governmental entities, and the private sector. For his first mission with NATAN, he was involved in managing and coordinating relief efforts during the Haiti earthquake in 2010. After returning from the mission, he became the CEO of NATAN for 3.5 years. Einav has been a dedicated volunteer for NATAN for over 13 years, using his extensive professional background to help promote humanitarian action during all missions. Einav has also served in missions with other organizations in several countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, but also in Greece, Jordan, and Colombia. In addition to his professional work, Einav teaches at several universities in Israel and serves as the head of the stress, trauma, and resilience track program at Tel Hai College, Israel.
Einav Levy providing trauma care to survivors in earthquake-hit Turkey
in Einav’s words:
I specialized in managing emergency situations and disasters. My background is in public health, which is about keeping the society healthy and safe. Recently, I have been researching and teaching about how to help people deal with their emotions and mental health after a disaster. We call this psychosocial interventions.
I have worked with NATAN for over 13 years, and when I got the phone call to join the mission in Turkey, I was asked to oversee these psychosocial interventions, meaning my job there was to make sure that people’s emotional needs were taken care of. In the past, I was responsible for the overall management and coordination of missions. My main focus was always on what was coming next, how we would approach it, and ensuring that everything was in sync. However, in Turkey, I was given a new role. This was a different kind of responsibility, one that allowed me to gain fresh experiences and see things from different angles. It made me realize the importance of making these mental health interventions an integral part of every mission.
The Power of Psychosocial Support
Part of our mission was to conduct a psychosocial assessment. It means that we were observing the psychological needs of the individuals affected by the earthquake on one hand, and on the other hand, we were trying to explore what are the communal effects of such an event. Observing these two connected elements is challenging in a setting that does not always prioritize the wellbeing of the affected population and that the people by themselves are not always addressing their own psychological needs. Moreover, in varied cultures, it is taboo to talk about these issues of feelings. Often the individual role within the community (woman, man, child) is creating a barrier. Our main goal was then to find channels to identify leaders and strong components within the community and support them in working through the challenges they face. Actions like defining roles, schedule, internal order, and promoting coherence is crucial for the rehabilitation and the functioning of the community. Thus not only searching for the challenges, but rather searching for the way onward.
An example of a way onward was through a communication we had with the manager of one of the camps. He asked for our support in identifying and creating a community structure and components that will enable him to perceive the population in the camp as a functioning independent community and not a group of individuals. It means that we were providing him with questions around safe spaces for children, roles of community leaders and a daily routine.
In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Turkey, I found myself carrying out several such individual and group interventions with various groups of people, each one with their unique story of survival and struggle. But it was the interventions with the medical staff at the hospital that left a lasting impression on me.
These physicians were not just healthcare professionals doing their job. They were also victims of the earthquake, with their own families and friends affected by the disaster. Working tirelessly in difficult conditions with little rest, they were understandably experiencing significant stress, which was affecting their wellbeing and their ability to perform their duties as physicians. So I decided to conduct group interventions with three physicians at a time, aiming to empower them and help them regain a sense of self-efficacy. We began from a place of despair, where they felt helpless and without a future. But as we progressed through the sessions, I could see a transformation taking place. After just a couple of hours, they started to think about ways to improve their situation and make plans for their future.
It was truly incredible to witness the change in these physicians, who had gone from feeling low and defeated to taking control of their lives again. I remember one couple I worked with, who were both physicians and engaged to be married. They had lost all hope for the future, but after the intervention, they had already picked out a name for their future daughter. It was heartwarming to see that progress and to know that I had played a part in helping them find hope and a sense of purpose once again.
Finding Fulfillment in Giving: The Inspiration Behind Long-Term Humanitarian Volunteering
When I think about what inspires me to go on humanitarian aid missions, I always come back to my own story. It's not always easy being away from my son, but I know that the work I'm doing is important and meaningful. My father's experience as a Holocaust survivor has played a big role in shaping my perspective. When he was fleeing for his life, he relied on the kindness and generosity of strangers to help him survive. That's the kind of impact that I hope to have in my own work.
There's a story that I really love that I think illustrates this point well. It's about a man who is walking along the beach, and he sees another man picking up starfish and throwing them back into the ocean. There are hundreds of starfish, and it seems like an impossible task. The first man asks the second man why he's bothering, since he can't possibly save them all. The second man picks up another starfish and throws it back into the sea, and says, "It made a difference for that one."
That's how I feel about the work that I do. I may not be able to save everyone, but I can make a difference for the people that I do help. When I'm on a mission, I focus on the small things that I can do to make someone's life a little bit better - whatever it is, I know that it matters, and that's what keeps me going.