By Francis Okoye, Maiduguri
Christian Solidarity Worldwide Nigeria ( CSW- N ) has organised a trauma healing training for 90 internally displaced persons ( IDPs) , human rights defenders ( HRD ) comprising Journalists, Lawyers, Pastors , teachers and catechists, in Maiduguri.
60 of the participants were IDPs who fled Gwoza local government area in 2014 when Boko Haram terrorists invaded their communities and declared Gwoza their caliphate before the Nigerian military liberated the local government from the terrorists.
The IDPs are till today in Maiduguri at CAN Centre IDPs camp where they have been living for the past 10 years following continuous attack in their community in Mandara mountain in Gwoza, where the terrorists are still hibernating.
30 of the other participants were human rights defenders comprising lawyers , Journalists, pasters, teachers and catechists.
Speaking on the training which ended on Monday at the ST Patrick Catholic Church Social Centre in Maiduguri, the Executive Officer CSW-N, Rev Yunusa Nmadu Jnr, said the essence of the workshop is to develop resilience to the people who have gone through trauma in the Boko Haram insurgency.
He said the programme started with the human rights defenders for the fact they work with a lot of the victims of the Boko Haram insurgency, who are suffering from trauma of the crisis, being that it is very possible that they too would have secondary trauma because of the work they do.
” So we believe that apart from preparing them to be able to help others, we needed to also take them through how they can access cure for themselves to be able to withstand all they come across in the course of the work that input trauma on them,” Rev Nmadu Jnr said.
On the training of the 60 IDPs on trauma healing, Rev Nmadu who is the Secretary General of ECWA worldwide, noted that many people think that the greatest needs of the IDPs are money, food and the rest of such humanitarian provisions, but added that CSW- N have since after assessing them, discovered that they can be provided with those things , and yet they live in fear ,despair, timid and still have a lot of issues that could make them not to be integrated to the society.
” So the trauma healing workshop was organised by CSW-N to contribute to their lives of helping them to have resilience and bounce back to life ,because when they bounce back to life ,they can help themselves. Instead of only giving them fish ,we can teach them how to catch fish.
” So this is the reason we have come for them to have emotional healing and psychological wholeness. We are hoping that as we are able to access fund ,we will continue this kind of training to go beyond the number we have taken now.
” We took them out of their harsh and toxic environment and lodged them in a hotel within the five days of the workshop after training the human rights defenders for four days in order for them to have total healing and be accessible for the training.
” So we are hoping that not too long from now ,we will come back with food items for them, and see how we can tell their story to those who would want to help them,” he said.
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