Focus on trauma healing

"Almost all Burundians suffer from one form or another of trauma due to the crisis they have been experiencing since 1993," a social worker told IRIN during a recent seminar on trauma healing. The workshop, held in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, was organised by a local NGO, Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Services (THARS), in conjunction with social workers from the US-based Friends' Peace Team Project, which is funded by the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers. "Most traumatised Burundians do not sleep easily. They either eat nothing or too much. Many have headaches and nightmares. They are suspicious of one another, and sometimes even couples behave abnormally due to the trauma they experienced," said THARS's coordinator and psychotherapist, David Niyonzima. He went on to note that abnormal behaviour had even filtered down to children, whereby instead of going to school, they tended to hide in the bush to play games. "Others get into taking drugs, sex and alcohol - all because of the trauma they have gone through," he added. However, the most serious trauma arises not so much from what happened to the victims as "not being able to talk about what went on", Carolyne Keys, the THARS project coordinator, told IRIN. "So many people have told us about the series of killings they were not allowed to mourn, they couldn't talk about the loss of a person, they never knew what happened to them, and that of course is very very painful," she said. "A human being can't hold so many negative experiences." HEALING AND RECONCILIATION NECESSARY Burundi has been in a state of war ever since army mutineers murdered President Melchior Ndadaye, the country's first-ever Hutu president in 1993. In the violence which followed, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives. Now more than 300,000 live in camps for the internally displaced, while about 350,000 fled and are now in refugee camps in northwestern Tanzania. Proponents of trauma healing believe there can be no peace without reconciliation in Burundi, preceded by the healing of those traumatised during years of violence. They predict that in the absence of healing, violence is bound to persist. Victims must first act to heal themselves, and then help others to recover. Only then can reconciliation and peace set in, they say. "I think there has to be some healing before there can be reconciliation," said Keys. "When we look at the cycle of violence, we can see that unless there is healing, mourning, and unless you go through the four or five stages of the healing process, you can't reach that area of acceptance. Then the cycle of violence continues." NEED FOR MATERIAL HELP Helping a traumatised person mainly involves listening to accounts of experiences undergone, then gradually guiding the victim towards a state of forgiveness and acceptance. In this context, however, Burundians are still denied the possibility of adopting such a course, because the war continues unabated. They remain in mourning because people are still dying. What Burundians need now is not only psychological but also material help, psychologists say. Burundi is ranked as one of the world's poorest country. Many of its citizens cannot afford even one meal a day. Social workers are aware of the risk of failure in their efforts to heal the minds of people who have empty stomachs. "There are other things needed in terms of services," American clinical social worker, Susan Nowelsky, told IRIN. "Agencies are trying to come together to coordinate their services." Burundians see counselling as a healing process with a beginning and an end, a view which is not shared by Keys. "We don't say that a person is healed. It is not like an open wound that exactly heals when the skin forms a scar," she said. "Trauma healing is a lifelong journey. It touches the deepest part of the soul, the most inner part of a person. It affects the way the brain functions, it affects everything about a person." ENORMOUS TASK The task of steering Burundians towards reconciliation and peace is enormous because of the huge numbers of people involved in the process. With this in mind, THARS brought together representatives of 20 other organisations working in similar or related fields to participate in a three-day workshop last month, during which they discussed ways of cooperating and coordinating their approach to this task. Most participants said at the end of the meeting that as a result of their participation they had been able to acquire new skills in dealing with trauma. "I will now be able to listen to street children. They have not been given an opportunity to talk about their problems," said Odette Nahayo, a volunteer social worker dealing with street children.