Darfur: friends count in trauma recovery
By Charlotte Brudenell, ACT-Caritas
On the outskirts of the town of Nyala, Dereig camp is a temporary home for more than 20,000 people who have been displaced by the ongoing violence in Darfur. They have been attacked, lost family members and had their homes destroyed.
However, a community center inside the camp is enabling people to help one another overcome their traumatic experiences.
“The whole community is suffering … I feel the need to give my time and any kind of service that will offer some help to the community,” says Amina, a volunteer at the centre who came to Dereig camp in 2004, after their village was attacked.
The community center offers a whole range of activities: making grass mats, sewing, making tablecloths, and making pasta. The men are involved in heavier work – such as building beds. for example. These livelihood activities allow people to earn money to buy essential items themselves. The center also offers training in recognizing and dealing with trauma.
But it’s the company that really counts.
“The most positive thing about the center is that it brings people together. For a person that has been suffering, talking is a kind of healing. It’s a kind of group counseling,” Amina says.
The positive energy is palpable. From each room, a hum of gentle chatter radiates out through the open doors as women’s fingers expertly weave palm tree leaves into mats, guide material under the needle of a sewing machine, or turn dough into strings of pasta. Everyone is smiling.
Elizabeth Cornelio, or “Mama Eliza,” as everyone calls her, runs the center. She has been trained in trauma counseling by the ACT-Caritas Darfur Emergency Response Operation.
To encourage people to come to the center, Elizabeth makes personal visits around the camp. “I go to where the people are staying, I sit with them and speak with them. If I find a woman alone, lying down, crying, I tell her not to stay alone,” she says.
Elizabeth herself fled the war in southern Sudan. What motivates her to help others? “I thank God, I’ve made something good not for me, but for God because all people are created by God.”
The community center in Dereig camp was set up one year ago by Sudanaid, a local partner of the ACT-Caritas projects in Darfur. It has been so popular that a second hut has been built to accommodate everyone.
Action by Churches Together International (ACT) and Caritas Internationalis (CI) are working together in a joint response to the Darfur crisis. AngliCORD is a member of ACT International and is supporting this response to the Darfur crisis. You can make a donation to assist the emergency response in Darfur.