Frozen in time : accelerating trauma healing in protection of civilian (POC) sites in South Sudan

Abstract

Protracted conflict has devastated the lives of people in South Sudan, leading to widespread exposure to traumatic events.Trauma healing, however, has not recieved the prominence it deserves. Humanitarian actors continue to work hard to assist people in need and alleviate suffering, with trauma mostly unaddressed, including in Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) settlements and in the Protection of Civilian (PoC) sites. Subsequently, mental health interventions remain overlooked in attempts to address the legacies of violence. Despite the plethora of anecdotal evidence that trauma healing is essential to peacebuilding, there are no substantive studies yet conducted on how to appraise the effectiveness of community-based trauma healing and how to harness its full potential and break the cycle of generational trauma. Drawing predominantly from Lederach’s peacebuilding pyramid theory which focuses on the ‘bottom-up’ approach to trauma, and Lederach’s contemporary framework of moral imagination and the spider web, this study strengthens the understanding of the correlation between trauma and violence and the need to support the community’s ability to leverage skill sets needed for resilience and trauma healing. To this end, the study employed participatory action research through an intervention project formulated to increase the resilience of trauma-affected internally displaced persons in the Protection of Civilian site 3 (PoC 3) in Juba. Purposive sampling was employed to recruit participants from the ten zones that constitute PoC 3. In doing so, this study makes a unique contribution by establishing the nature and underlying causes of trauma for IDPs in PoC sites and how it has destroyed the social fabric in PoCs, an area with scarcity in research. The findings indicate that the IDPs have exhibitions of psychosomatic stress associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); such as nightmares, aggression, avoidance, forgetfulness and hopelessness. The symptoms are ascribed to people’s exposure to and witnessing of sexual violence, detention, killing, displacement and hardships. The findings also demonstrate that despite their experiences the PoC residents have resilience. The findings also indicate that this resilience is associated with community support, connections and relationships. These results were triangulated with qualitative findings, showing that trauma transformation is necessary for peacebuilding. Internally displaced men and women from PoC 3 led the intervention project, named Maal. The action team comprised eight peer supporters (four women and four men) who were trained and provided with trauma-informed peer support to build resilience and reduce the effects of trauma in the community. The action group reported positive gains credited to the group and the one-on-one sessions. In addition to enhanced self healing there was consistent feedback from the action group that the sessions took them through a journey of introspection as individuals.