[psych-hr] Children of War

[***Moderator's note: Last week Judith Thompson, who has recently joined our 
group, sent me a long e-mail in which she included her comments on the 
IPEDEHP case study (which have gone out as a separate e-mail) and provided 
background information on herself (included in a another e-mail with bio-data 
on Judith, Nora Sveaass, and Viviana ValsGen). She also sent in her e-mail, 
to share with the group, some fascinating information about Children of War 
(COW), a program that she founded in the early 1980's and which she refers to 
in her bio-data. 

Below is the material that Judith provided in her e-mail about Children of 
War. She ends with several questions that she is currently working through 
based on her experience with Children of War. Judith would welcome 
input/comments from the members of this group who are in an excellent 
position to address a number of her questions. Please send your comments 
through the list serve so that we can all benefit from them.***]

Children of War created a unique model which offered young survivors an
opportunity to begin the healing process, understand some theory behind
personal and social healing processes and serve as peer role
models, teachers and motivators for U.S. youth, who in turn, had the
opportunity to feel and be connected to their peers whose lives had been
shaped by war and injustice, learn about human rights issues through that
connection and form groups to act in solidarity with their peers. This
relational process was very empowering and effective on both ends. 

The power and results of the work were such that I am still gleaning many
lessons from it which are central to my current studies. Here's a bit
more information about the model we used. 

Our work unfolded in stages. (I use the past tense because we ran out of
funds in 1993). First we convened groups of young people from around the
world (ages 14-19) for a week of community building, peer exchange, and
sharing stories [which took place in the United States]. These included
domestic youth from inner city neighborhoods, farm labor camps. homeless
shelters and Native American reservations. Their commonalities were that
they had all experienced war, oppression and/or social dislocation. And,
most of them were identified as young leaders in their respective
communities who wanted to be social change agents or were already engaged
in activities of resistance, reconstruction or community organizing. 
Numbers of them had been detained, tortured, witness to mass executions or
the death of family members, or were forced to fight and kill. 

Integral to our week-long process together was the sharing of story and
the teaching of simple co-counselling processes which created safety and
taught basic listening skills and the theory of therapeutic attention.
Since most of them had never given voice to their experiences, our time
together included deep grieving as well as a tremendous sense of
liberation, empowerment and hope, as well as an opportunity to experience
and develop a more global identity through the strong identification of
one's own story in the experience of so many others. 

In all, we worked with young people from 22 national backgrounds,
including across lines of antagonism (bringing together Israelis and
Palestinians, Catholics and Protestants). In addition, their realities
became the context for social analysis, allowing the understanding of
social power to be revealed through this cross-cultural mix of experience
as viewed through story. 

Secondly, these young people would form teams of seven, representing
global diversity (and always including two U.S. teens), and they would
travel to U.S. communities to share their stories with teenagers in high
schools, community centers, and religious institutions. There they shared
their stories (already evolving into stories of greater insight and wisdom
by virtue of the shared process) and engaged in formal and informal
dialogue with young people. In addition, local youth were invited to share
their own stories and learned the basic principles of "support groups"
wherein it was safe to share feelings about their lives. This often
included refugees, immigrants, inner city, suburban and disaffected youth. 
The results were the formation of multi-cultural youth groups devoted to
local and international solidarity, and an international network of
leaders with a developing global perspective and tools for self-care which
they could also teach others back home. 

We had many partners: Educators for Social Responsibility took care of
the school based curriculum which accompanied the peer teaching part and
many grassroots groups world-wide helped identify and support our
leadership network (for example, PIDEE in Chile, the Palestinian
Counselling Center in Jerusalem, REAPS in the Philippines and the SACC in
South Africa). A dissertation has been written about the project (Lyn
Fine, Ph.D. "Children of............), a documentary produced and a
theater piece created which just opened in New York and was featured at
the recent Hague Appeal for Peace. 

Here are the areas of inquiry which I am currently pursuing.

1. How does sharing story in group settings which are specifically
multi-cultural affect the healing process? 

2. While identity and knowledge are culturally formed (at least
partially), are there other aspects/possibilities of identity and
knowledge that are enhanced by multi-cultural/national experiences, and,
if so, how do these transcultural or group culture-making experiences
effect how we locate self? 

3. Are these only transitory , passing moments or experiences which create
lasting shifts of perception about self and other? 

As a meditator for 20 years (vipassana/a Buddhist form), I am fascinated
with the understanding of "self" -- egoic, gendered, cultural,
transpersonal and the relationship between self-concept and suffering. My
work with survivors has led me to believe that the cross-cultural bonding
has been significant in their healing process, but I haven't thoroughly
understood this as it stirred a connection to a more universal self. 

5. In what ways is public testimony empowering and motivating in building
a solidarity movement for justice? 

6. How does it affect both the one bearing witness and the one listening? 

7. What needs to happen for this to be truly empowering and not
exhausting and re-traumatizing for the survivor?

I have worked with Amnesty's Survivor's Committee and have seen that they 
haven't had adequate support for their own needs while out on the speaking 
circuit. They are over-worked and not given personal support for their 
feelings. This has seemed to be detrimental to many of them.

8. My work with young survivors in partnership with U.S. teens has led me
to investigate Buddhist and other notions about compassion. What is it? 
How do we cultivate it in ourselves and other? 

Again, I think the stories of survivors, when appropriate for that person,
and within the appropriate setting, can be a powerful approach to
cultivating compassion and action. 

Looking forward to learning from all of you and sharing more.

Judith Thompson