Tabasco is a rich state in natural resources; it has the largest rivers in Mexico, beautiful large forest and rich oil fields. Its population of about 2,200,000 people, is integrated with people from different
social and economical levels, but most of them are poor.  At the end of this year, an extraordinary rainy season, caused the big dams that hold the water from the mountains to produce electricity, overfilled. It was necessary, to release the dams, in such massive amounts of water, that not only the small communities downstream but also the City of Villahermosa (surrounded by the Greave and the Carrizal rivers) were flooded.  The total affected people was about 1,200,000 persons, more than half of the population, both rich and poor people were affected. This time the flooding in Villahermosa was such that downtown, the level 
of the water reached more than 3 meters.

People used to say: “one tragedy, does not come alone”.  Unfortunately this time, that was right, in the neighboring state, the State of Chiapas, the excessive rain, caused a big hill to collapse and fall down in to the Grijalva river that also feeds the Tabasco dams, clogging the flow of the river, and disappearing on the fall. Small communities were covered with thousands of tons of soil and rocks. A large amount of work has to be done to move millions of cubic meters of rock and soil to allow the water flow again on the way to the sea. This second tragedy caused people to be afraid and many to panic, because once the river will be unclogged  it can overfill the dams again and cause new flooding.

 The magnitude of this tragedy has required that National and  International people and institutions bring help to Tabasco  and Chiapas.

 Some of the affected people are already receiving assistance,  however, as the access to small communities is still affected,  help has not been able to reach them.  As the water receded,  and health problems arose, a big campaign against  infections was implemented. Hepatitis, Dengue Fever,  Malaria, Tetanus, Flu, stomach sickness and others are a real danger (again the problem is to reach the small populations in areas of difficult access).

In the city of Villahermosa, after people were allowed to leave the shelters, many of them, found
all their property, and their schools and working places, destroyed. Many also could not find family members.

A new big and collective issue is showing up now, the people need psychological help to relieve their traumas, fears and panic.

REQUEST FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP

Soon requests for psychological help began arriving at the ATFT Foundation.  Jenny Edwards,
Maria Eulalia Perez Porrúa, Nora Baladerian, Suzanne Connolly, Roger and Joanne Callahan, and many others received these messages.

Shortly thereafter, the ATFT Foundation received a formal invitation from Caritas of Tabasco, to come and help.  The original idea was to prepare a team to be able to go to Tabascoearly next year, but the situation there required immediate attention. Suzanne Connolly and Joanne Callahan started working on the possibility to form and finance the cost of a Trauma Relief Team of Spanish speaking TFT therapists able to go there.

A local TFT Dx trained practioner Raquel Lobo contacted by Maria Eulalia Perez Porrua offered to
provide local support and logistics in Villahermosa. The new deployment dates were Dec 10 to Dec 15, 2007.

A TEAM WAS FORMED

A team was formed with two engineers and therapists (TFT Dx trained) from Mexico City: Victor Manuel Eguiluz and myself, Alvaro Hernandez, and a group of local people from Tabasco: Raquel Lobo TFT Dx, Lia Cervantes, Lupita Canto TFT Dx, Lolita Camacho TFT Dx, Cecilia Garcia TFT Dx, Ofelia Hinojosa TFT Dx, Ma Reyna Suarez, Marilin Diaz, Rosita Romellon and 83 more local volunteers willing to be trained and help with TFT.

The first step after our arrival was to train the volunteers and actualize the trained ones.  With the help of Victor Manuel Eguiluz and the local TFT trained people I gave an official TFT Algorithm Level course to the 83 volunteers.  Unfortunately Raquel Lobo had return to Monterrey because her father went to the hospital. Before leaving, she had to move all the furniture and accessories from the first floor to the second floor of her house to be prepared in case a new flooding happens (The red alarm is on ). The local support to our team was then supplied by Lia Cervantes.

THE ALGORITHM LEVEL TRAINING IN TABASCO

The course was given in a local church auditorium (Parroquia Del Espiritu Santo) kindly provided by
Fr. Denis Ochoa.

The manuals, certificates and material in Spanish, financed by the ATFT Foundation, were prepared
and the training started as usual, the group was enthusiastic.  At the end of the first day, something unusual happened, one of the trainees, a lady on her way back home was assaulted and robbed.

The next day when she arrived to the training she was crying and asking for help.  This tragedy gave me the opportunity to treat her with TFT in front of the group and bring her SUD from 10 to 1, but a new aspect from this trauma arrived, the fear that her daughters would be affected because her pictures and address were in her stolen hand bag.  The problem this time required more than algorithms, I treated her in private using Diagnostic Level TFT, after correcting reversals, treating her for toxins and using collarbone breathing her SUD went from 10 to 1.

The training was a success, and the people were very happy, for the opportunity to learn TFT, the comments and evaluation were excellent and they were ready to start helping friends, families,
neighbors and the affected people in Tabasco.

At the end of the training, Lia Cervantes organized small groups of people living near by in order to start providing help to the affected ones.  One of the trainees, a physician, Dr Raymundo Cadena, was affected by the flooding and he lost all his medical tools and equipment. At the training he asked a lot of questions, he also had the opportunity to treat and be treated and by the end of the training he was totally convinced of TFT.  He has a radio program and invited us, Victor Manuel and myself, to his program to give help by radio in the local station XEVT. He explained to his audience that TFT is the most incredible therapy that he has ever known.  Victor Manuel filmed and recorded the one hour radio program. After the program we had dinner together with him. It was a nice experience to see how TFT is accepted by professional physicians and to give therapy to a radio audience of traumatized people.

HELPING TRAUMATIZED PEOPLE

The next activity was to help the traumatized people in the poor communities; the help was provided in local churches. This activity was planned and coordinated by Raquel Lobo and Lia Cervantes and in each community a responsible contact person was named.  Lia Cervantes and Sister Martina, were in charge of the first one “Comunidad Bosques de Saloya”. We gave group help to more than 60 people and then individual help to the special cases or to the ones that required it because their SUD did not come down.

After the help was provided, a sandwich was offered to everybody. Maria Reyna Suarez was in charge of the second community, but in the church another activity was help that arrived (food and water) we could not work at that time.  In the same place where the training was given, help was offered to affected people, and a small group came and were successfully helped.

Finally Marilin Diaz and Rosita Rosellon were in charge of one of the more affected areas, MANGA III in the Santa Teresita church and MANGA II in the Corpus Christy church in both cases we had many people that with the help of the new TFT algorithm trainees we were able to provide relief.  Special attention was given to the children. (See photos) In the Santa Teresita Church the priest suspended his mass to allow us to keep working, the people were so happy with the TFT that they give us a big applause before leaving 2 hours later than the time projected.  This was one of the most rewarding experiences.

A lot more work still needs to be done. We have not been to the shelters, where thousands of people are. New teams need to be sent to coordinate the help of the new trained volunteers and to be able to reach more traumatized people.

It was a pleasure for me to be part of the organization and the first team of the ATFT Foundation Trauma Relief Committee sent to Tabasco.

If you wish to help with this relief effort contact: Joanne Callahan, joanne@TFTRX.com or Suzanne
Connolly, zanne@earthlink.net