Trauma counsellors are helping women and children in northern Nigeria to deal with severe psychosocial consequences following conflict which has left 2.7 million people traumatised.
A charity helping Christians persecuted because of their faith is about to expand. A new building, opening later in 2017, will provide a residential centre to help those needing more intense treatment. The charity says it will be big enough to accommodate 30 people and have a training facility to meet the growing need for counsellors. It built a similar facility in Iraq to help the victims of the Islamic State group, and the service has also helped victims of the conflict with Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s Middle Belt states.
First of its kind
The centre will be the first of its kind in a region hit hard by conflict. ‘We have different kinds of trauma in Nigeria,’ said Patience* a counsellor. ‘We have Boko Haram. We have war. We have ethnic crises. We have religious crises. And everywhere people are traumatised.’
