Recovery tours
He said the counseling concentrates on dealing with what happened to them. Things they’ve refused to talk about for years. Bemak says one very successful method is what he calls “recovery tours.” He and a psycho-services expert from Invisible Children actually take the children back to the site where they were abducted.
“One on each side, we walk them through that site and they talk about every single experience that they had. We ask them what happened here. Where were you lying? Were you facing to the wall? Were you facing to the door when they came in? Where was your grandmother? And they talk us through that whole experience. Then we walk them, side by side, as they’re trembling, as they’re talking about it, walk them through the bush and the pathway that they took,” he said.
Bemak said every child who’s taken the recovery tour found it extremely healing. And he does believe they can be healed, but it may take a long time. Each child is different.
“I think it’s critical that these youth are healed because the long term cost to our society and our community is significant,” he said.
Professor Bemak said if LRA leader Joseph Kony is captured or meets the same fate as Moammar Gadhafi it will help bring closure to the former child soldiers.
The International Rescue Committee estimates there are 300,000 boys and girls around the world currently trained as soldiers or used as porters, spies or sex slaves.
最新
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27