WTF provides psycho-social help to victims of violence

War and violence leave savage wounds in people's lives and in the communities they are part of. War Trauma Foundation (WTF) works with local communities in (post-)conflict areas to, among other things, develop psycho-social programmes and to promote knowledge exchange. 'We want to enable organisations to properly carry out psycho-social programmes and to work towards restoring people and communities currently suffering from the ravages of war and violence,' says Marieke Schouten, WTF's director.

Traumas are not tangible, yet often omnipresent after a war. Usually, people no longer trust each other. They nevertheless still have to move forward together. WTF was founded in 1997 and has nine staff members. The organisation also has a group of enthusiastic volunteers and trainers/consultants who develop psycho-social support programmes in various locations around the world. WTF is active in the Middle East, the African Great Lakes region, Sri Lanka, the Caucasus and Kosovo.

Training programme

WTF supports organisations who provide psycho-social help to people traumatised by war and violence. 'We develop tools and share our knowledge with care workers. We've for example developed the Training of Trainers. This is a training programme in which teachers and counsellors learn to recognise the symptoms of a trauma,' explains Schouten.

'We also publish an international magazine Intervention: the International Journal of Mental Health, Psychosocial Work and Counselling in Areas of Armed Conflict. The journal is distributed to NGO staff and professionals engaged in psycho-social aid. We do so because, among other things, wish to enable organisations to properly implement psycho-social programmes. We provide them wioth the necessary tools needed to achieve this.'

'The training material and tools have been translated into various languages (including French, English, Spanish, Russia, Tamil and Arabic),' says Schouten. 'Furthermore, Narrative Theatre was developed by Dr. Yvonne Sliep. This tool provides communities with a forum where they are collectively and individually able to discuss difficult subjects, such as sexual violence, but also to find a solution together.'

Guidelines

WTF also participates in the Reference Group of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) on Mental Health and Psycho Social Support in Emergency Settings. This group consists of representatives of the United Nations and other organisations. 'Standards have been developed for psycho-social aid. These are important in order to guarantee the quality of psycho-social programmes,' Schouten explains.

Providing psycho-social aid is what WTF is about. Why did the organisation became a member of PSO? Schouten: 'We are a small organisation with our own expertise, but we lack knowledge in many other fields. For example, our work entails capacity development and the demand to reinforce networks. For instance, in Burundi we wish to reinforce networks together with our partners. This rebuilds trust between people and, in turn, that benefits society. We need knowledge to this end and would like to know how others have dealt with this challenge. We can learn a great deal from PSO and her members in the fields of planning, monitoring & evaluation, experience, knowledge and lessons learned.'

PSO membership provides even more advantages to WTF. 'We can debate various subjects with PSO in a relaxed manner,' says Schouten. 'Moreover, we participate in themed learning programmes. Furthermore, PSO is open to providing tailor-made solutions. That constitutes added value.'

Critical

What does the organisation expect from the cooperation? 'We expect to be able to turn to PSO with our questions,' says Schouten. 'And, we expect to be able to enter into discussion with PSO concerning the content and we wish to be critically questioned about why we do things the way we do.'

But that is not all. 'We hope to be able to influence government policy in collaboration with PSO to draw the former's attention to certain issues,' says Schouten. 'At the moment, discussions are underway at various levels on efficiency and achieving results. This discussion is a tricky one and the challenge for us is to explain that reality is complex and that it is not always possible to capture it in figures.'

And what can WTF offer other PSO members? 'We have experience in bringing different types of people together, organising knowledge exchange with the general public, scientists and researchers.'