This summer we have been busy getting payments to 9 counsellors who work in remote or challenging locations, and who have applied for help from our Trustee-sponsored Support Fund. This year they come from 4 countries: Colombia, South Sudan, Syria and Uganda, and have been helped with transport, materials and equipment to enable them to treat children using CATT. The photograph shows one of them, Fionah Lokoroma, a nurse working from Jojo Medicare clinic in Kitgum, northern Uganda. She needed a bicycle and CATT materials. In the period June to July 2024 she was able to help 7 children and young people who had trauma symptoms, and used her new bike to visit 5 households with another 9 children and young people. She told us that their parents have seen positive changes in their children’s behaviour and social interactions, and now understand how to help them. Here is Fionah taking off to the field to follow up the children and the families in their villages.

We are also delighted to have recently trained 7 new CATT counsellors in Nigeria, thanks to our new partnership with Nigerian diaspora organisation NIDSG (https://nidsg.com/) which was set up provide, relief and assistance for IDPs, who are the victims of insurgency activities of Boko Haram. This was the first training we’ve done entirely online, and the trainees picked up the technique really well because they were already experienced psychologists and counsellors. We look forward to hearing how they get on with CATT to treat trauma among internally displaced children in Nigeria.

Currently, we are working on our ‘Wings of Hope for Palestine’ training project, as trustees have prioritised the training of Palestinians this year in order to help with reconstruction and repair of shattered lives once peace returns to this troubled region. We will tell you more about that in our next news update.