ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews briefly the psychological effects of disasters, accidents and other stressful life events; to give an overview of the various populations in need, and finally, offer suggestions of specific contributions of Non-Governmental Organizations to address those needs. A disaster, accident, or any other stressful event will have an impact on the psychology of the person affected. It can be sudden and strong, such as one's life being under immediate threat; this is an acute crisis: a trauma. Or it can be a slow process of building tensions which might result in a crisis or, if adequately managed, will resolve itself: a stress. The stress can be expressed in many different symptoms which can be physical as well as emotional and can affect the behaviour of the person. Most of the time, the individual will present symptoms selected from different categories on an unconscious basis.
