By Tina George, Minna
An Non-Governmental Organization, Christains Solidarity Worldwide Nigeria, has called on Federal, states and local governments, to emphasize more on the mental health, and psychosocial support for victims of terrorism and insurgency.
The Team Lead of the NGO, Mrs. Agera Thelma Liti, made the call during a mental health and psychosocial support training held for the victims of insurgency and human rights defenders in Minna, Niger state capital.
She stressed the need for government to look beyond providing food and clothing for the victims of insurgency and invest and concentrate more in providing mental health and psychosocial support for the victims as several of them are suffering from trauma, depression and anxiety which have made them unable to cope after attacks and abductions.
According to her, this would enable the victims to be able to come out of their traumatized state and recover mentally from attacks and abductions they were involved in.
Liti said the training was held in three batches two of which IDPs and victims were participants, while the last batch involved Human Rights Defenders.
She explained that the IDPs and insurgency victims were trained on how to help them build resilience so that they could bounce back to carrying on with their lives, while the 15 Human Rights Defenders (HDRs), which comprises Coordinators of Internally Displaced Person (IDP), lawyers, pastors, and NGOs/CSOs Coordinators, were trained to increase their resilience in coping with secondary trauma to enable them continue to defend the victims of attacks and abductions.
“When these attacks happen, there is a lot of support that we can give to the people. We know that giving emergency relief materials like food items, clothing, and toiletries is one aspect but sometimes they are in such a traumatized state that eating is not their priority so for such people, eating or clothing may not be their priority.
“For such people, unless they are given psychosocial support that will help them to be detraumatized and reduce their anxiety and fears, they may not be able to live a free life.
“Mental health is key to the well-being of traumatized victims to enable them to bounce back and continue to live their lives after such incidents. There is a need for such victims to be mentally balanced to have emotional, social, and spiritual health to help them engage effectively in the community,” she said.
Liti said that the psychosocial training for victims, IDPs, and Human Rights Defenders have taken place in six states of Kaduna, Taraba, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, and Niger where insurgency and terrorism are rampant while the last state which is Nasarawa state would be held soon.
