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Letters from the FieldSeptember, 2008 Dear Friends, This was my first Capacitar visit to Sierra Leone, funded by Trocaire, the Catholic Development Agency of Ireland, and coordinated by Sr. Ann Stevens, SJC, West African provincial of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny. Sister Ann is a doctor from Australia who has ministered in Sierra Leone since the mid 1990s. I worked in 3 regions—Makeni (Northern Province), Kenema (South & East) and Freetown (West) and the 200+ participants came in from many communities around the country. My six 2-day workshops gave men, women and youth basic Capacitar wellness practices for healing traumatic stress, for physical and emotional pain, for self-care as well as for use with others. A broad cross section of Sierra Leoneans participated coming from professional and grassroots backgrounds, including: teachers, social workers, psychologists, religious, priests, seminarians, diocesan vicars, NGO staffs, trauma counselors, nurses, doctors, grassroots leaders, parish leaders, youth, the hearing impaired and deaf, young men with amputated arms and hands, several former child soldiers and ex-combatants, cooks, farmers and depressed widows. Everyone spoke of war trauma, along with their daily struggle with poverty, malnutrition, domestic violence, unemployment, and corruption at all levels of the society. Since the early 1990s because of corrupt governments Sierra Leone has not had functioning systems for water or electricity in most parts of the country. During my 3-week sojourn I became very appreciative of the luxury of cold-water showers and bucket baths, grateful just for having access to some water. I quickly learned how to anticipate when and where there would be a few hours of electricity to recharge my ipod and laptop for use in my workshops. And I grew to deeply value the resilience of the Sierra Leoneans who have re-created their lives from the ashes of civil war, massive corruption and grinding poverty. Background History When civil war broke out in neighboring Liberia in 1989 thousands of Liberian refugees fled into Sierra Leone. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was formed in 1991 led by the brutal forces of Liberian warlord (and later Liberian president) Charles Taylor. The RUF, the Sierra Leonean rebel force, filled its rank with youth and children--boys and girls, who were kidnapped from schools and villages, drugged and forced to torture and kill family and neighboring villagers during their formation. In rebel camps girls were trained for combat as well as boys, and were also used for prostitution and producing the next generation of rebel soldiers. This young killing force carried out unimaginable atrocities, including chopping off hands and limbs to spread a reign of terror among rural people. The war ended in 2002 and the UN (Unamsil) led a disarmament process with rebels turning over weapons in exchange for different benefits—opportunities for education, land or jobs. A war crimes court and Truth and Reconciliation Commission followed. Arrival and Work in Makeni The Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny have been in Sierra Leone for nearly 150 years. Their ministries have included schools, clinics and pastoral care for some of the poorest people in Africa. During our ride to Makeni in the north, Sr. Ann described some of her remarkable experiences during the war, offering healthcare with very few medicines or resources. In the late 1990s RUF rebels took control of Makeni and the Northern Province, occupying the school, convent, parish buildings and clinic, looting or destroying most properties. As we arrived in Makeni we stopped to see the new Fatima Health Clinic, still in the process of being built, directed by Sr. Philomena from India. Behind the clinic stood an abandoned building used for storage that had been the sisters’ convent. During part of the war it served as a rebel base and torture center. As we visited the health center to check out the room for the workshop, women with babies on their backs and men with different maladies sat on long benches awaiting attention. In the back of the center another group of women worked over large hulled-out trunks of palm trees, pounding cassava root with different ingredients. Ann explained that this was a project to teach poor women how to make a nutritious food for their babies. Malnutrition is rampant in most parts of Sierra Leone, so health education that teaches women how to feed their children is one focus of the center. During my stay in Makeni I was housed in St. Joseph’s School for the Hearing Impaired run by Sr. Mary Sweeney from Ireland. The school serves about 150 deaf children--some live at the school and others come daily for their classes. Disabilities, like loss of hearing or sight, are great challenges in a country as poor as Sierra Leone. Ann said that during the war when Makeni was attacked and overrun by the rebels, the children were split up and housed by individual families who cared for them and helped them escape. That way the children were less vulnerable for capture when the attacks occurred. During these times people had to live on the run and many became internal refugees losing their homes, lands and all their possessions. For a time St. Joseph School served as a very basic hospital for the war-wounded that Ann ran with few supplies or medicines during some of the most difficult times of the conflict. There was a lot of interest in our first Capacitar workshop in Makeni. Forty-seven men, women and youth packed into the small clinic classroom for two days. Participants included a cross-section of people (Christian and some Muslims) from the area, as well as from Magburaka schools and Kono, a region almost totally destroyed in the war. A number of the participants were teachers or personnel working in primary, secondary and vocational schools. At this first workshop I learned that beating or caning of children was an acceptable practice at home and in the classroom. “Spare the rod and spoil the child” was the traditional approach to child rearing as well as to solving domestic issues. Many participants spoke of the high incidence of domestic violence. So when I taught the Capacitar Fingerholds to manage feelings of anger and rage and to build self-esteem, many commented that this would be a great help for both home and the classroom. Two participants were prison guards in Makeni and spoke of their challenging job of controlling and re-educating prisoners. They felt that the wellness practices would give them many tools for self-care as well as for use with staff and prisoners. A delightful group in the workshop was the hearing-impaired youth. Sr. Mary, who heads St. Joseph School, interpreted with sign language so that the young men and women could fully participate in learning the practices and sharing in the discussion groups. In the course of the workshop I learned that several of the youth were ex-combatants, kidnapped as children, trained in combat and made to carry out atrocities. Re-integration of these youth is challenging for families and communities since as children they were socialized with violence and terror. Often families reject the returning ex-combatant out of fear or shame. One of these young men who on the first day of the workshop appeared to be moving in and out of reality, on the second day was energetic and present after the Tai Chi and the EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). Someone remarked that this was the longest time they had ever seen him attentive or focused. The sisters lovingly included all of these children, which is an important step of re-education and re-integration of child soldiers. Kenema In this area the teachers were especially eager to learn skills to help their students (usually 50-70 in a class). We had teachers from all levels (pre-school, primary, secondary, vocational schools), as well as one of the local principals. This was also the time when the government was doing certification of teachers, so when officials showed up at schools, teachers had to go for their interviews. Three Holy Rosary Secondary teachers had to leave the workshop for this. When the official dragged on with the process, one teacher told him that she wanted to return to our workshop even though she hadn’t yet received her payment from him (approximately $40—a lot of money for a teacher). She told him that the Capacitar training and skills were much more important to her than the money she was entitled to receive! Another teacher, Theresa, who had lost family members and all her possessions in the war, had recently lost her husband from poisoning. During her self-introduction at the start of the workshop she began to cry as she described her pain and reason for coming. Usually when I am aware of such deep trauma in a person, I hold them very carefully watching for anything that might trigger reactions. However, Theresa did not respond like a victim. By mid-morning she began to look lighter and by the afternoon she was smiling after the different practices. The next day she looked beautiful, radiating peace and strength. She described how much of her body pain was gone and that now she had some tools that she could use for herself, and with her children and students! During my time in Kenema a number of people mentioned that they were members of men’s or women’s societies. These secret societies, following the Mende or Temne traditions, have periods of initiation and coming of age where youth are taught practices and rituals connected with the cultures. Some tribes, like the Mendes, use elaborately carved masks in their initiation ceremonies and dances. For girls this also involves female circumcision, which is still practiced throughout the country. In spite of the problems with health, hygiene, pain and infection, pressure to continue this practice comes from mothers or grandmothers so that their daughters can have successful matches and marriages. Freetown Another group that I worked with for the first time included young men with amputated limbs. During the civil war amputation of hands, arms, fingers or other body parts was carried out by RUF rebels as well as by “sobels”, soldiers who later joined the rebel efforts. Before going to Sierra Leone, I had researched the medical aspects of amputation to better understand the condition, but when I met the four young men face to face my heart knew immediately how to work with them. I tried to respectfully include them in everything—Tai Chi, Fingerholds, EFT tapping, even acupressure and the Body Holds—and I said, “If you can’t do it with your stump, imagine you are doing it with your energy limb that still exists.” It was truly amazing to watch the young men feel “whole”, moving with the rest of the group to the graceful movements of Tai Chi or the playful movements of Pal Dan Gum. One young man, Bambay, whose forearms had been amputated, came with his new wife Mary. They lovingly worked together doing the Holds on each other. It was truly a moment of grace watching Bambay holding Mary’s head with his short appendages that had been surgically reconstructed, and he could feel the healing energy moving through his limbs and her body. Santos, a gifted wood carver with one hand, said that the pain he usually had in his stump and shoulder were gone and that he could feel energy flowing freely throughout his body. Another participant in this workshop was Sam, a blind man who was an activist for human rights for disabled persons. When he arrived the second day, Sam commented that this was one of the first times that he could feel like himself in a group because everyone had welcomed him and treated him as a whole person with value. As I taught the different movements or practices, Ann or Sam’s assistant Augustine, moved Sam’s arms and hands into position so he could feel what the movement was like. Very quickly he was keeping up with the rest of the group. Our last workshop was for priests and seminarians of the Freetown diocese. Most of the men arrived tired and very stressed from their many responsibilities. Many of them described symptoms of compassion fatigue or secondary trauma resulting from listening to the problems and histories of their people. This workshop was framed as body-based spirituality and self-care for ministry. The spiritual director of the major seminary participated along with a professor of theology, and together they planned to introduce Capacitar practices at the opening retreat for seminarians. They wanted to start the new year of studies with tools to help the young men heal past wounds so they could more effectively minister to their people. Future Plans Peace and blessings, Resources on Sierra Leone: Films/Videos: |
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