By Arison Tamfu
About eight years ago, Falta Modou was in love.
“It was love at first sight. He gave me everything I needed. Everything was just okay,” said the 30-year-old of a man she fell in love with in Amchide, a locality in Cameroon’s Far North region.
On a certain Saturday evening, gunmen invaded the locality and abducted her three brothers and husband.
Modou was depressed and barely slept and ate.
“Life became senseless,” said the mother of six.
Such stories have become ordinary in the region where violence by terror group, Boko Haram has flared up.
Raids by the terror group have not only brought destruction and death to the region but also inflicted an indelible trauma on the survivors, especially women and children.
Official statistics are unavailable but local NGOs estimate that more than 1 in 10 persons in conflict-affected communities are living with mental health conditions, ranging from mild depression to more intense symptoms such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
A mental and psychological support program by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is now helping rebuild lives of people struggling to cope with the mental scars.
As the sun shone from a cloudless sky in Kerawa, a locality in the region that shares a porous border with Nigeria, a group of women, men and children gathered in an open space to share their stories and greet each other.
They talked about their traumatizing experiences and strategies that have helped them to cope.
The support group sessions were developed as a response to the humanitarian consequences of the armed conflict, said Emerance Vanessa Mbia, a clinical psychologist with ICRC.
“They do not know if their family members are alive or not. The goal is to get them to live with the disappearance of their loved ones without ever forgetting them… and try to smile again as before, try to start life again,” said Mbia, adding that such sessions held eight times in two months have had “tremendous” impact on the victims.
“In the majority of cases, we see change, no matter the level of psychological stress,” added Mbia who leads a team of mental health workers and facilitators in the region.
She said, as part of the program, the survivors share gifts with community members to bind relationships and eject discrimination and stigmatization.
“When they see changes in their own lives, they go back to their communities and families and share what they have learnt to help others,” said Mbia.
Modou shared the bittersweet memories of her time in Amchide with Xinhua in Gance locality where she fled to live with her children.
Thanks to the ICRC program, she has recovered psychologically and now runs a small restaurant business.
“I found solace in the support group sessions. I am doing well now,” she said. “At first I could not step out of the house. Today, I go out, cook food at home, attend ceremonies. They were many things I could not do before, but today, I tried to do them. I pay courtesy visits that I did not do before. I feel very comfortable.”
In Kerawa, a 55-year-old found herself seeking refuge with displaced persons crowded into a handful of huts. She told Xinhua that she lost four members of her family when Boko Haram raided her village in neighboring Nigeria.
“I had to escape to this place,” said the woman who asked not to be named. She was part of the support group session and received gifts from ICRC.
“Thanks to the psychological program by ICRC, my kids are releasing their stress and energy here with other kids. They stopped thinking about the attack, so this is a positive,” said the mother of 14.
While the program has increased the confidence and self-esteem of many displaced by the conflict in the region, they hope to return home anytime soon and work hard to make their dreams take flight.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
