Project "Providing the psyhosocial therapy to traumatized orphans"

Amica EDUCA, in cooperation with and financial support of Islamic Relief, has implemented the project of providing psychosocial support to orphans and their guardians. The main goal of this project was to help and strengthen orphans and their caregivers by providing them to learn the techniques for alleviating and overcoming the effect of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

In accordance with approved project and its main goal Amica Educa implemented the project for the beneficiaries of Islamic Relief in for 4 refugee camps in Tuzla Canton.
The project took 6 months (after 2 months of preparation activities) in the period between April 2006 and November 2006.

Activities
- Equipment of the space reserved for the work with children – In order to find the space for the work with two groups of children the cooperation with elementary school “Tinja“ in Tinja has been made. The school provided the room for painting atelier which Amica Educa equipped with additional donations from one company and with its own founds, and made it ready for work with children. Due to time spent for equipping, the  realization of the workshops with children started later than the workshops with women.
- Organization and realization of group sessions – To maintain the regular contact with the users, the support through group sessions (held every 15 days) has been offered. The work has been organized with four groups of women and two groups of children:

During the period from May to July, experienced leaders worked with group of women from collective-settlement Mihatovici whose children have the support of Islamic Relief. The group included 10 female members, and 12 group sessions were held. There were only women in the group, self-supporting mothers, most of them were illiterate or without education, mostly unemployed, but at the same time very strong, self-sacrificing women who found their own ways to solve some of the most important existential issues and who provide education to their children.
Work with this group of women was organized in the seminar hall and atelier in Association Amica Educa. Going out from the collective settlement and group sessions in Amica Educa rooms, proved to be one of the important factors that influenced regular attendance and that contributed to the fact that women needed less time to open up and make mutual trust with other members as well as with the leaders of the group. Transport from collective settlement Mihatovici to the association and back was organized. Analyzing the attendance sheet, one could see that the attendance was very good. The group showed interest for the sessions and by their regular attendance they helped realization of the planned activities to the maximum.

During the period from May to November, leaders of groups worked with 2 groups of women from collective-settlement Tinja whose children have the support of Islamic Relief. Thirty members divided into 2 groups took part in 24 sessions.
Participants offered their homes to be the place for the meetings and group sessions, what indicates how important was the implementation of group sessions and its continuity for them. Few women with severally damaged mental health were also in the group (people with severe form of depression and strong symptoms of PTSD), and therefore clinical psychologist and psychiatrist were involved in work with these women.
It is important to mention that the project of this kind was the only one organized in this district. These two groups were the only groups for which no other nongovernmental organization provide psycho-social and therapeutic support, therefore this program was completely new for the members of the group and very important for building their individuality, getting back their confidence and belief in future.

Group of women from Špionica had 12 members who attended 12 sessions. Some group members have been included in similar projects providing psycho-social support previously and therefore they had more experience than other members. That advantage and difference of the members gave this group certain specific feature and strength (other members without previous experience in group work could see the example of “stronger“ women what also motivated them for work on themselves and their problem). With this group, it was mostly worked on topic “present“ and “my future vision“).

Criteria for forming groups were age and shift in which pupils attend school lessons. According to that, a group of younger children was formed and it included 10 members, while a group of older children included 14 members. Both groups went through 11 sessions. The main goal was to teach children that there are different ways to handle our everyday family problems, problems in school, with friends. The program tried to raise their level of self-confidence as one of preconditions for proper social behavior and tolerance. Also, we wanted to animate their creativity, imagination, make them stronger in expressing their opinions, feelings and needs on non-violent and creative way.
The most specific feature of the work with these groups is the reaction of children when they came in the painting atelier as the space for work, the way of organization of work in the atelier, possibility to creatively express themselves using only hands. They made fast progress and their curiosity about new things and techniques for painting was expressed.

- Organizing individual treatments for women and children
in the process of estimating the needs of project beneficiaries and during the group work as well, the need for individual psychosocial support was evident, the support which was organized for all participants for whom it was agreed to be necessary or for those who expressed the wish for individual treatment. Twenty-two individual treatments were held (92 hours of psychotherapy). Individual support was organized in accordance with problems and possibilities of users, for some in their places e.g. in Spionica, and for some it was acceptable to come to, for that specially designed space, in our house in Tuzla.

Used methods and accomplished results
Methods and instruments used during the treatment are:

During the treatment/sessions following symptoms were noticed:

With the regular work with experts the improvement of their state was evident: