Trauma Counseling for Child Survivors of War

Over the last three months, I Live Again Uganda has provided counseling to over 400 refugee children.  Each one has their own story of how they came to Uganda from South Sudan.  Some came with their parents, some came with their siblings and some came alone. 

For children that have come alone or are with siblings, they have now become the parent.  They get up early, clean their homes, wash clothes, prepare food and then, if they can make it on time - they will go to school.  Life as a refugee child (especially without parents or guardians) can be extremely difficult.  Not only are they having to deal with the day to day survivlal in the refugee settlement - but they are also still recovering from severe trauma from their experience of war in South Sudan.

Thanks to the support of our donors, we are helping these children find peace after war.  Each child has a chance to share their story through drawing.  When they draw of their challenging experiences before coming to Uganda the images usually portray violence, conflict and war.  For children, drawing can be so much easier to express and share pain.  Sometimes, children don't have the words to express their pain, feel safe enough to share it or its simply too painful to express.  We also encourage the children to draw images of hope - of their dreams for the future.  Some of their drawings of hope are of going to school in Uganda, becoming a doctor, reading, praying and beyond.  Each one is regaining hope for their future.

I Live Again Uganda has been working in partnership with a school within the refugee settlement to provide counseling programs on a regular basis.  This not only includes art therapy programs, but group counseling, games and one on one counseling support.   Good things are happening in the lives of those that are coming to our counseling programs.  The teachers at the school have shared that the students that have come to I Live Again Uganda's Counselign Program are different.  They shared that their behavior has greatly improved, they are more disciplined in doing their school work, they are coming to school more regularly and they are working together as classmates so much better!  

We are so thankful to you for supporting this important work.  We still have so many more children to get to here.  We can't do this without you.  Thanks to you, child refugees from South Sudan are gaining hope.

The laughter of children maybe one of the best sounds in the world.   After two years of schools being closed in Uganda due to COVID-19, we are perhaps just as excited as the children that schools were finally reopened at the beginning of 2022.  Schools across the country have reopened and this includes schools in the refugee settlement where I Live Again Uganda is providing essential mental health services to refugees from South Sudan.  

This year, we are working directly with a few schools in the refugee settlement and the surrounding community around these schools to invest directly into mental health of child refugees from South Sudan.  The school's have been more than happy to invite the team of I Live Again Uganda each week to help children express and heal from the trauma they have faced due to war and their rush to find safety in Uganda.  

Recently, our team had the opportunity to provide programs for a young group of refugee children (10 years of age and below) to help them build and grow in confidence.  We played games, shared stories and invited them to share a story with the group.  The children shared cultural stories that Elders from their tribe would share them with.  Storytelling is a rich part of the culture of South Sudan.  Cultural stories  and storytelling are essential to not only continue to build culture and traditions, but they also hold a deep and meaningful life lesson.  We heard stories of hippopotamus’, lions, elephants, snakes, chameleons and more!  It was a wonderful time together where children were built up in confidence in their sharing before the group.  Parents and leaders of the children were able to witness the children’s program and shared with their joy of our coming to help their children.  We even had the opportunity to distribute t-shirts to children which were received with much excitement.  

We cannot provide these programs without the generous support of donors.  
Please know how grateful we are to hear that beautiful sound again… the sound of children laughing. 

Links:

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