Different psychosocial rehabilitation programmes for children have somewhat different results, due to differences in resources, methodologies and objectives. But a much more significant difference appears when comparing rehabilitated children with children who have not undergone any rehabilitation at all. That shows a study from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
“Different programs for taking care of traumatised children have different effects. But the main difference is between putting any program into work and doing nothing at all.” That is one conclusion Kumari Thoradeniya draws from her thesis study, where she has compared three different psycho-social rehabilitation programmes of war-affected children in war-torn Sri Lanka. Field studies for the thesis were undertaken in 2005, where Kumari Thoradeniya used interviews, questionnaires and observations to gather data.
The Muditha programme, operated in a Sinhala village of Vavuniya district, is one of the three. This was initiated by a Buddhist monk when some children sought his protection and care. At the time of the study, there were nearly 80 children in this programme, of whom 90% were Tamils from the northern province.
The Karuna programme in the Batticaloa district of the Eastern province, on the other hand, was started by requests by the government and non-government officials. In 2005 the programme employed 46 staff members, who all had prior knowledge of conducting a psychosocial rehabilitation programme, for the 300 Tamil children in care.
Lastly the Upeksha programme – also in the Batticaloa district – was initiated by a catholic priest living in the same war-torn area as the community he served. The programme engaged groups of 25 Tamil and 25 Muslim children, and equal numbers boys and girls, for nine months. After the nine months, another group with the same mixture was selected.
The programmes were also compared with a group of children who had not been subjected to any rehabilitation at all.
“The impact levels of each of the programmes were different because of their differences in objectives, approaches and methodologies, as well as varying levels of human and material resources”, Kumari Thoradeniya says.
“However, when comparing the rehabilitated children with those who had not gone through any rehabilitation, there was a remarkable difference. The rehabilitated children showed a much higher possibility to become normal citizens compared to those who had not undergone any rehabilitation”, she says.
The results underscore the need to recognize requirements for psychosocial rehabilitation, as it is intrinsic to long-term personal as well as social development.
“Government policies should include psychosocial support for victims of war, and it should take into account issues such as local human resources, building capacity, enhancing resilience, networking, advocacy and coordination with other actors when addressing the psychosocial well-being of a population”, Kumari Thoradeniya concludes.
Information
Contact: Kumari Thoradeniya, e-mail: m_sachitra@yahoo.com. Telephone: +94 771516586.
Thesis title: “A Comparative Study of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Programmes of War-effected Children in War-torn Sri Lanka
More about the theses: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/51494
http://samfak.gu.se/english/News/News/News_Detail//psychosocial-programmes-for-c...
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