Project Description
Funded by: LWF/Canadian Lutheran World Relief
Timeline: 2016
WRO collaborated with the organisations VOP and LWF for this project, aiming to promote peace building in the Zummar district whilst concurrently improving mental health and wellbeing within the community. WRO organized and conducted the training of trainers (TOT) workshops primarily, training the staff from VOP and LWF who will deliver the MHPSS trainings to community members/service providers.
WRO provided 20 workshops in the region for members of the community in the Zummar district. These capacity building workshops based around MHPSS awareness were used to strengthen social cohesion, actively engaging the community in their own self support systems whilst enhancing unification and peaceful co-existence between IDP’s and returnees. The participants of these workshops were split into two groups, social service providers and adolescents. They varied from different educational backgrounds from teachers to civil activists, lawyers, Mukhtars, traders etc.
Project Outcomes/Achievements: The workshops witnessed significant attention from the participants as a tool to express how issues such as lack of hope, changes of social traditions and lack of social solidarity are impacting their mental health. Within the workshops, there was an emphasis by the trainers on how social solidarity and reconciliation effects mental health positively and how social cohesion through their coordination and standing-support will enhance the psychosocial support, aiding their small community to a better place. During the workshops, trainers enabled participants to communicate issues facing them personally and created a mediation group to show how these issues can be solved based on social cohesive mechanisms and how it can lead to better mental health on societal levels. WRO provided MHPSS training to 386 people from the Zummar district in total, 149 community members/service providers (128 men & 21 women) and 237 adolescents (192 boys & 45 girls). 2 of the male participants have approached the WRO organization and stated their willingness to volunteer in helping their society through the organizational activities and receive capacity building in hopes to better enhance their knowledge and help their society in term of Mental health and Psycho-social support.
Community members stated “I enjoyed the information I had during the workshops and I will disseminate this” and “I didn’t know that I can help myself or others through providing psycho- social support”.
