Since July 2007 Ba Futuru has been working to develop a psychosocial recovery component of its ongoing TAHRE Program. The addition of this component will help to fill the void of service providers in the area of trauma and mental health. The long-term objective is to professionalize psychosocial counseling and trauma recovery services in Timor-Leste together with Southern Cross University (SCU) Australia, Pradet, Hope, UNICEF, and the RDTL Government. Together we hope to develop a thriving social services sector with trained competent therapists that can help Timor-Leste recover from its vast societal trauma.
The goal of the Peace Building Psychosocial Recovery Project will be the strengthened capacity of key service providers within local non-governmental organizations and the RDTL Government (including Saude Mental, Ministry of Social Services, The Living Memory Project, safe house projects, Ba Futuru and Pradet) to address societal trauma, thereby facilitating more effective and sustainable post-conflict reconstruction. The long-term impact and outcome of the project will be a reduction in public and interpersonal violence due to resolution of collective and individual trauma. Trauma counselling will assist in reducing the impact of violence on survivors of GBV, it will assist in reducing the anger and aggression of youths and others who have been exposed to violent situations. In this respect the counseling will act as both a reactive response and a preventative response to violence.
The links between experiencing trauma and exhibiting subsequent violent behavior is well documented and if we suppose that the Modvig (2000) study is correct in its assertion that 75% of the 750,000 people surveyed were suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) the high levels of periodic public and ubiquitous interpersonal violence in Timor-Leste are not surprising. By using trauma counseling and psychosocial techniques in varying activities with a number of vulnerable groups it is envisaged that a valuable contribution will be made to reducing violence in the lives of those groups and, consequently, to peace-building in Timor-Leste.
Outcome I – To provide capacity building for field staff working with traumatised individuals, families and communities;
Outcome II – To deliver an accredited course of study that builds on trauma counselling and support recovery and healing to contribute to peace building in Timor-Leste.
Outcome III – To develop the skills of a selected group of graduates to become trainers to ensure sustainability.
The material used for these trainings comes from Professor Judy Atkinson who is a prominent trauma counseling lecturer and Head of College of Indigenous Australian Peoples at SCU. The trainings have been organized and carried out due to the hard work and initiative of Ina Varella Bradridge who is a Master's student at Southern Cross University. Bradridge has worked very hard to adapt the modules to a Timor-Leste contextual setting and to translate the materisl into the predominant local language of Timor-Leste, Tetum.
For the facilitation of training workshops engage Timorese service providers, it has been dicided that training will take place four times a year. For succes in these trainings it has proved important to have one expert in the field of trauma counseling as well as a highly trained Timorese lecturer (Bradridge), to ensure that the trauma recovery trainings are able to incorporate as much culturally appropriate adaptation as possible. The objective of these trainings and mentoring sessions with Ba Futuru and Pradet facilitators is to help further develop their psychosocial counseling and trauma recovery skills. So far these training have been successful at developing national staff capacity to improve the quality of their work in the social service sector.
UNITS
Introduction to the Course
UNIT 1 - Indigenous Counsellor Training
UNIT 2 - Loss and Grief Group Facilitation Counsellor Training
UNIT 3 - Trauma and Trauma Recovery - Experiential
UNIT 4 - Family Violence / Family Recovery
UNIT 5 - Recreating the Circle of Wellbeing
UNIT 6 - Healing Childhood Traumatisation
UNIT 7 - It’s My Life! Working with Adolescents
UNIT 8 - Men’s and Women’s Healing Recovery
UNIT 9 - The Biological Effects Of Traumatic Stress
One of Ba Futuru’s staff, Judit de Sousa, reported: “I felt really proud to join this counseling program, because it takes advantage of my natural ability.” When asked what she got out of it, Judit said: “Before I attended this program, I did not yet understand about how someone might feel when they encountered certain problems, but after this training, I feel that not only can I better control myself when I face problems, but I can also help others to find solutions for their problems. I also learned how to be more compassionate and give attention to a person in need as well as to be a good listener, neutral and confidential. After this training I’ve decided that I want to be a good counselor so that I can better help others.”
Participants very much appreciated the fact that the training was accompanied by practice as this enabled them to better translate the course material into actual use in their respective ongoing work.
The practicum held in early March 2008 including many children returning from IDP camps as well as those that had stayed in the community. During the implementation the counselling students also approached the parents and youth to ask their ideas and opinions about the activities provided and they gave positive feedback that the activities implemented by the Counselling students seemed to be really helping the children and encouraging a good relationship between them.
Ba Futuru staff member and Community Recovery student Lulu Martins comments on her fieldwork in Manleuana between October 6 and 7:
“As students of the counselling training we felt satisfied with the materials and lessons that we received from out lecturer because these helped us to heal ourselves and also prepare ourselves to help others in the future. On October 6th -7th 2008, in the village and sub village based in Manleuana, we had the opportunity to implement the lessons and activities that we learned in training. This implementation was done together with the youth, community and kids that had recently returned home from IDP camps and those living in the area. We carried out psychosocial activities, creating self-care approach through painting, music, poetry, sharing of history and cleaning the environment. These activities helped the participants to express their sentiments and ideas and facilitated positive communication among them.”
The long-term objective of this program is to work together with the Timor-Leste government and other partners in order to develop a set of Psychosocial Recovery courses whereby the national participants will receive diplomas from Southern Cross University after three years of study and practice. Thus far, together with SCU and Pradet, Ba Futuru has secured resources from AusAID for running another year of this program with 10 student scholarships for registration at SCU. This also includes 4 units of training (each for two weeks) for 25 additional participants from various service provider NGOs and government agencies, but the funds for their registration at SCU are still being sought.
