{"id":5693,"date":"2013-05-24T11:42:29","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T15:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/?p=5693"},"modified":"2013-12-20T17:42:12","modified_gmt":"2013-12-20T21:42:12","slug":"being-sensitive-to-trauma-in-humanitarian-development-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/2013\/05\/being-sensitive-to-trauma-in-humanitarian-development-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Sensitive to Trauma in Humanitarian and Development Aid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Carolyn
Carolyn Yoder, founding director of Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience, says organizations that offer assistance to populations affected by war, natural disasters or other traumatic occurrences need to be “trauma informed” in order to support wellsprings of resilience. Photo by Molly Kraybill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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During the recent civil war in Nepal, the staff of a vocational training project reported that the young trainees were displaying behaviors probably related to the stress of the violence: difficulty concentrating, aggression, low self-confidence and the tendency to suddenly burst into tears. Many had difficulty completing the course, and those that did finish had difficulty succeeding in the labor market, which diminished the project\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

In a paper on the issue, entitled \u201cThe Vicissitudes of Empowerment in Conflict-Afflicted Nepal,\u201d Barbara Weyermann<\/strong> reported that project staff, \u201cdidn\u2019t want to ask the trainees about how they or their families were affected by the war because they didn\u2019t know what to do when the young men started to cry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The human tendency to avoid difficult topics, at both individual and organizational levels, is hardly unique. Weyermann notes that \u201cin most \u2018normal\u2019 development projects, the effect of violence [on beneficiaries] is almost always ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other side of the world, Nicaraguan psychologist Martha Cabrera<\/strong> observed in the late 1990s that no one seemed to be taking note of the subjective, psychological or spiritual needs of her country in the post-conflict, post-Hurricane Mitch era. Development and humanitarian assistance projects abounded. Everyone had been \u201cwork-shopped\u201d on various topics, but with few concrete results. Cabrera wondered why.<\/p>\n

Using a health survey as a point of entry, Cabrera and her colleagues at the Valdivieso Center traveled to the worst-affected regions with a goal of addressing psychological needs. The depth and breadth of what they discovered staggered them. They found high levels of apathy, isolation, aggressiveness, abuse, chronic somatic illness and low levels of flexibility, tolerance and the ability to trust and work together. They reported their findings in a paper entitled \u201cLiving and Surviving In a Multiply Wounded Country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicaragua, the team realized, \u201cwas a multiply wounded, multiply traumatized, multiply mourning country,\u201d which had \u201cserious implications for people\u2019s health, the resilience of the country\u2019s social fabric, the success of development schemes, and the hope of future generations.\u201d Cabrera noted it is hard to move forward, and to build democracy, when the personal and communal history still hurts.<\/p>\n

What Weyermann and Cabrera describe are the effects of trauma on the body, brain and behavior of individuals, communities and societies.<\/p>\n

In recent years, humanitarian and development organizations have recognized these needs and have increasingly included psychosocial programs when working with populations impacted by natural disasters or violence. Weyermann notes that the support provided by these projects can be vital to victims\/survivors, but she points out two drawbacks: the stigma those receiving services often face; and the fact that addressing economic hardship \u2013 which can be traumatic in itself \u2013 is outside of the mandate of most psychosocial projects.<\/p>\n

A way to address these limitations is for organizations to become \u201ctrauma informed\u201d so that a trauma-sensitive framework can be integrated into any project: economic, health, governance and others. This means more than putting a psychologist on every project team. Awareness of the repercussions of trauma needs to extend across the organization, to headquarters and field staff alike.<\/p>\n

Being trauma-informed includes:<\/p>\n