In Theory: Avoiding ‘compassion fatigue’ in times of disaster

Q. Recent, local disasters like our wildfires and world-wide disasters like the devastating brush fires, dust storms, floods, prolonged drought, storms and cyclones in Australia, tsunamis hitting Samoa and earthquakes striking the Indonesian island of Sumatra have raised the need for financial assistance to support charities. However, in an article in the Christian Science Monitor this week, UNICEF Australia spokesman Martin Thomas fears there is a danger of “compassion fatigue,” that is, “so many instances of death and destruction seen on the TV news can produce a kind of emotional numbness. What can be done to combat compassion fatigue and motivate individuals to pray and also give humanitarian assistance in times of crisis?

Paige Eaves: “We fall into compassion fatigue,” journalist Susan Moeller writes in the Summer 2001 issue of Media Studies Journal, “after seeing graphic images and hearing graphic tales that mean little to us beyond the fact that ‘people are being hurt.’”

When we see and hear about horrible things that happen far away, we don’t always feel compelled to respond, and it’s not because we don’t feel pity, because, of course, we do. It’s more that we feel helpless in the face of tsunamis and genocide, so we don’t engage.

When Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, we could do something. Through the United Methodist Committee on Relief we sent emergency supplies and relief coordinators, and volunteers are still organizing to go to the Gulf to rebuild homes, each time coming back more energized than fatigued.

The worldwide Methodist church decided to focus on the Nothing But Nets campaign to eradicate malaria, and we can see already how this practical, concrete approach to a huge problem keeps compassion energy alive. A child dies of malaria every 30 seconds — wait, don’t disengage yet — because with a $10 donation you can buy a treated bed net that keeps the mosquitoes out.

Our church bought 120 nets. Donors worldwide bought 2.8 million.