Johannes Veigel – vivo international

Center of Excellence for Psychotraumatology

An innovative Center of Excellence for Psychotraumatology has been established by the University of Konstanz, Department of Psychology, at the Chair of Clinical Psychology and Chair of Clinical and Neuropsychology, situated at the Centre for Psychiatry Reichenau, Germany. The research clinic collaborates with vivo and focuses on the treatment of refugees who have suffered traumatic events. The present initiative of the clinic is supported by the European Refugee Fund/ Europaeischer Fluechtlingsfonds/ EFF, which aims to assist refugees who have come to Germany seeking asylum, many of whom suffer from post traumatic stress.

Follow the link to find out more.

Center of Excellence for Psychotraumatology

Fighting the war in the minds – Trainings in Narrative Exposure Therapy

vivo international has more than a decade of experience in training local personnel in conflict- and post-conflict areas to deliver trauma-focused therapy (Narrative Exposure Therapy) and similar methods. In October 2013 vivo organized two trainings in trauma therapy in the Kivu regions in Goma and Bukavu. The aim of vivo was to enable local staff in this war-affected region to help traumatized people in need.

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Fighting the war in the minds – Trainings in Narrative Exposure Therapy

Facts and Numbers for the „vivo outpatient clinic for survivors of violence and trauma“ in Gulu

Since April 2011 the vivo outpatient clinic in Gulu, Northern Uganda is a steady service provider for the rehabilitation of chronic trauma-related mental health problems of survivors of violence and trauma during the war and in the post-conflict society.

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Facts and Numbers for the „vivo outpatient clinic for survivors of violence and trauma“ in Gulu

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the Kivu Provinces

To get an insight into what has been learned from the work with ex-combatants in the Democratic Republic of Congo to date, please follow the link to find a report on the work in progress.

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the Kivu Provinces

Preventing harmful punishment in the upbringing of children

In Tanzania corporal punishment and other forms of harmful punishment are very common and still lawful both in the family and at school. A representative national survey has shown that three quarters of Tanzanian adolescent have experienced physical violence and one quarter have experience emotional abuse during their upbringing. vivo international has found similar results in a cross-sectional study of more than 400 Tanzanian primary school students. Furthermore, we found that family violence, emotional neglect, and corporal punishment at school affected the psychological well-being of these children severely. Furthermore, school achievement and cognitive abilities were negatively influenced by harmful punishment.

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Preventing harmful punishment in the upbringing of children

vivo’s vision in Uganda

vivo provides evidence-based psychological treatment to the most vulnerable. Through interventions on the individual and systemic level vivo works to stop violence and enable peace. Watch vivo staff members Anett Pfeiffer and Laura Achan say more about vivo’s vision in Uganda (filmed and edited by Helle Harnisch).

vivo’s vision in Uganda

Our work in Gulu Prison

Since October 2012 vivo is also working in the prison of Gulu. The approximately 700 male inmates and approx. 300 female inmates are also often formerly abducted by the LRA and suffer as well from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. The mental health well-being of the inmates is also influenced by the long pre-trial detention times (Uganda has too little personnel, e.g. only a few judges responsible for capital offences) and the general poverty: the inmates are dependent on their relatives to provide for food and legal fees.

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Our work in Gulu Prison

(de) vivo unterstützt die Arbeit von Aaruthal in Sri Lanka

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(de) vivo unterstützt die Arbeit von Aaruthal in Sri Lanka

Treating the victims of gender based violence

Sosame is a psychiatric hospital situated in Bukavu, in the South-Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The hospital is managed by the “Brothers of Charity“ (“Frères de la Charité“) and treats people with severe mental illnesses from the whole province. The people who are seeking help here have hallucinations, are depressed, drug addicted or traumatised.

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Treating the victims of gender based violence

Psychosocial support for survivors of gender-based violence

In our work in Northern Uganda, vivo recorded alarmingly high rates of acts of gender-based violence: More than 80% of the female clients who had received trauma-focused treatments through vivo reported at least one sexual assault during their lifetime. Some of these traumatic sexual experiences took place during the war, but even in the post-conflict society sexual assaults towards women and children are on the rise. To provide psychotherapeutic support to survivors of gender-based violence, vivo was funded by the UN (namely the UN Peace Building Fund via UNFPA) in the framework of the project “Strengthening the Multisectoral Approach to Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response” from April 2011 until June 2012. In the course of this project, vivo offered a wide range of psychological support for traumatised children and women, which included psychodiagnostic assessments, trauma-focused therapy, solution-focused and resource-oriented counselling, family mediation and follow-up visits.

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Psychosocial support for survivors of gender-based violence

School counsellor supports primary school children in Tanzania

In spring 2012, a team from vivo international started a large-scale survey on the psychological health of children at a primary school in Iringa, Tanzania. Iringa is one of the Tanzanian regions that is most affected by HIV/AIDS. vivo international supports the St. Dominic Savio Primary School, a project supporting orphans due to HIV.

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School counsellor supports primary school children in Tanzania

Training in trauma therapy for local counsellors

Atrocities and brutal crimes, exerted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have recently spread from Northern Uganda to the neighbouring countries where they cause large-scale humanitarian suffering. Specifically in the border regions to South Sudan and the Central African Republic children in DRC experience massive brutality and forced abductions. The LRA criminals kidnap minors and force them under life threat to fight their own people, carry heavy loads through the bush or serve as sex slaves – often children and youth have to kill their own families in order not to be killed themselves.

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Training in trauma therapy for local counsellors

From soldier to civilian: Demobilising the mind

For over a year vivo international has been collaborating with a centre for youth and adolescents in Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The centre offers adolescents who are affected by the war social support and a vocational training in order to give them a new perspective on their future. The adolescents receive a one-year training, support from social workers and help with job-seeking. The centre supports many former child soldiers. The former child soldiers were minors when they joined an armed group; today they are adolescents and young adults who are trying to find their way into civil life. However, this journey is a rocky road, many of them have difficulties integrating. Many of them suffer from traumatic experiences and can be irritable and violent. Hence, they can only partially benefit from the reintegration programme and some do not complete it successfully.

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From soldier to civilian: Demobilising the mind

A life with violence, poverty and insecurity – Support for street children in Burundi

Burundi is a small, densely populated country in the heart of Africa. From 1993 until 2006 the country was shaken by a civil war. More than 300.000 people died and more than a million were displaced. Still today the population has to deal with an atmosphere of violence and insecurity. As a consequence of “la crise”, the Burundian term for the civil war, Burundi has become one of the poorest countries in the world and a large part of the population does not own enough land to feed their families.

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A life with violence, poverty and insecurity – Support for street children in Burundi

Establishment of a trauma-focused outpatient clinic for Northern Uganda

Since 1986 there has been an unrelenting and brutal war in the Northern districts of Uganda, led by the rebel group called the “Lord’s Resistance Army”. Studies by vivo have repeatedly shown that the psychological consequences of these two decades of war and terror are still ongoing: Despite the fact that the fighting ended in 2005, many survivors cannot forget their experiences and continuously relive them in the form of intruding memories, nightmares and flashbacks. For them, the war continues in their minds. Furthermore, this long-lasting war has shattered social norms of non-violent interactions, which manifests in severe cases of violence within families and communities and thus leads to further traumatization.

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Establishment of a trauma-focused outpatient clinic for Northern Uganda

Giving a voice to victims of female genital mutilation

Very recently, vivo has started its work with women who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) in Ethiopia. In July, August and September 2010 more than 150 interviews with women in Jijiga (close to the Somali border) were conducted on FGM and its mental health consequences, including an intake on the special needs of the women. vivo was impressed by the strength of the women in the Somali region but also very much touched by their horrendous experiences and the pain they have undergone. Knowing about the mental, physical, social and psychological plight of sexually cut women in detail now, we are eagerly planning a focussed treatment and support project.

Giving a voice to victims of female genital mutilation

Housing project for HIV/AIDS orphans in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries of the world. Already in 2004 it was home to 3.9 Million orphans. While many organizations are providing food, clothes and schooling for these children, vivo’s focus is on the psychosocial needs of these children to ensure their healthy mental development. Back in spring 2006 vivo interviewed more than 100 children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS living in Awassa, in Southern Ethiopia. Beside symptoms of grief, many children living in so-called foster families were suffering from ongoing maltreatment and were exploited by their foster families as servants. Therefore additionally to the implementation of trauma and grief counselling structures for orphans, vivo also engaged in awareness raising activities against child abuse and maltreatment in the community and provided training for local counsellors, grandparents and foster families on ‘positive parenting’.

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Housing project for HIV/AIDS orphans in Ethiopia

Violence in the family: Support for affected families in Northern Uganda

Beyond the grievous consequences of war for the individual, exposure to violence on a societal level profoundly disrupts the family system. Loss of family members, psychological suffering of individual family members, high rates of alcohol abuse and the detachment from traditional social support systems such as the extended family adversely affect family relationships. As a consequence families that
have been living through war are at a high risk for family violence even after the war has ended. Children growing up with violence in the family continue to suffer and are vulnerable to develop long-lasting emotional and behavioural problems.

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Violence in the family: Support for affected families in Northern Uganda

Sri Lanka – a country shattered by war and natural disaster

In Sri Lanka’s North-Eastern provinces, traumatic experiences were already common prior to the Tsunami in December 2004. For two decades, thousands of people have been killed and many more were displaced as a result of conflict and violence in the country. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) have been fighting for political autonomy, which resulted in ongoing conflict in the Northern and Eastern areas of the country. Civilians have become casualties of war; landmines and unexploded ordnance posed a constant threat; hospitals and schools have been destroyed; and the economy has been shattered.

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Sri Lanka – a country shattered by war and natural disaster

vivo starts up in Congo

Violence against civilians is rampant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s War. Women and girls are raped on a daily basis and their life is determined by the fear of being victimized. The women and girls, who have survived rape are often left stigmatized and physically and psychological injured for life.

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vivo starts up in Congo

Psychosocial support system for 600 youths in Northern Uganda

In close collaboration with the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Youth Education Pack (YEP), vivo started up the development of a long-term psychosocial support system which has so far reached 600 war-affected youths in vocational training centres all over Uganda’s war-torn North. YEP supports most severely affected learners, many of them formerly abducted child soldiers, within ten vocational trainings centres. Within the YEP program learners are enabled to learn practical vocational skills and catch up on academic education in order to reintegrate better within their communities after their return home.

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Psychosocial support system for 600 youths in Northern Uganda

Rwandan psychologists trained by their own peers

vivo has been engaged with Rwandan survivors of genocide, still suffering from trauma-related consequences, since 2006. An important component was the training of a group of Rwandan psychologists by vivo experts in Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) and Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), during the autumn of 2007. Eighty-six genocide victims were randomly assigned into a treatment and a waiting list control group. Under expert supervision, the Rwandan therapists conducted 6 sessions of NET and 2 sessions of IPT and social interventions, each taking between 90 and 150 minutes. All 37 treatments were completed with great success and the participants improved considerably, observed in the reduction of symptoms of trauma, grief, and depression (effect size for the reduction of trauma symptoms: d= 0.66 at 3 month post-test and d= 1.48 at 1 year follow-up).

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Rwandan psychologists trained by their own peers

vivo international’s mental health component within the Colombian Demobilization Program

Violence, attacks, internal displacement, disappearances and abductions of people thousands of murders and illegal recruitment characterize the history of Colombia for more than 50 years. After an ongoing wave of violence and terror, the Colombian government began the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of illegal armed groups in 2006. The process serves 55,800 demobilized and is coordinated by the High Commissioner for Reintegration (Agencia Colombiana para la Reintegración – ACR ) and implemented locally through 26 service centres . The ACR offers the ex-combatants both psychosocial support and assistance in their professional reintegration.

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vivo international’s mental health component within the Colombian Demobilization Program

Mental health survey among children in Kabul

In February 2005 vivo had trained a group of 32 local counsellors in the concepts of Traumatic Stress, PTSD and Narrative Exposure Therapy for traumatized survivors of the war and Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In October, a vivo team came back to Kabul and, together with the previously trained counsellors, carried out an epidemiological survey in schools in Dachti Barchi area of Afghanistan’s capital.

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Mental health survey among children in Kabul

Founding and current work of vivo Uganda

vivo decided to build a permanent base in the country in 2004. Local cooperation partners and team members formed vivo Uganda, the independent sister organization of vivo, which is registered with the country’s NGO board. With vivo becoming more and more visible in Uganda, local policy makers and officials requested vivo to not only focus on refugees, but engage in helping the war-affected and displaced population of Northern Uganda.

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Founding and current work of vivo Uganda

vivo’s work in Sri Lanka

Since early 2002 vivo has been partnering with GTZ, the Ministry of Education, the Education Council North-East and Shantiham Association for Health & Counselling to build-up a cascade model of psycho-social care for affected school children in the North-Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. In the framework of this model, more than 1500 teachers have been trained as qualified Counsellors and Befrienders to provide services to children and their families in need.

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vivo’s work in Sri Lanka

Projekte

vivo hilft

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Projects

vivo helps

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