"How could I fall asleep? I can't help thinking of the day when the force of nature killed my husband" Mariam, Iranian from Bam, says with tears in her eyes. She is not only in need of a shelter, food and water. She has to deal with the deep psychological trauma that she shares with thousands of Iranian families.

In the past years, the Iranian authorities had already developed a pilot project on prevention that they experimented in 2002, when the earth shook again in western Iran. More than 4000 survivors have already participated in the group meetings managed by a psychiatrist and a psychologist. "Since I lost my family" a survivor says, "my mind has weakened. I'm hurt psychologically, not physically".

Many families, like those of Mohammed's and Fatemeh's, meet at the cemetery to mourn their beloved's death and wonder about their future. Official news from the Department of Health reports that 700 people are receiving one-to-one support (a specific psychological therapy); 210 psychologists and psychiatrists are being educated to heal this kind of trauma along with 45 consultants and teachers of the Department of Education. Furthermore, 12,000 leaflets about post-traumatic stress disorder have been widely distributed. The Government of Teheran has to plan the project carefully so that the U.N. and other supporting organizations can achieve material and psychological recovery.