Date: Tuesday, 23 October 2018, 12:48 pm
Moderated by: Jannik Rust, Senior Project Manager of the Robert Bosch Stiftung
Speaker(s):
  • Tecla Wanjala, CEO of Healing and Reconciling Africa Center, Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow, Robert Bosch Academy
  • Meryam Schouler-Ocak, Chair of Research Group on Intercultural Migration and Mental Healthcare, Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Charité - University Medical School

About

This round table will convene an interdisciplinary group of selected representatives from civil society, politics and public institutions to address the opportunities and challenges of responding to trauma among refugees using low-threshold, cost-effective methods which provide an alternative to classical concepts. Trauma healing among refugees is very important as it will help them gain resilience to be able to live a more meaningful life. It is key to an effective social integration program and for peaceful coexistence among refugees and the host society. However, practitioners supporting intervention in situations of trauma are facing challenges, first and foremost the huge number of people in need of healing. Practitioners need to explore alternative methods to classical treatment concepts that are easily accessible for less complicated cases in order to reach out to as many affected people as possible who are in need of healing.

Tecla Wanjala is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Healing and Reconciling Africa Center. The Center supports capacity enhancement for community-based organizations based in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes Region of Africa in community dialogue, social healing, reconciliation and restorative justice. At the national level, Wanjala is the Director of the Social Healing and Reconciliation Program of the Green String Network in Nairobi. Prior, she served as one of the Commissioners of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission Kenya (TJRC-Kenya). Moreover, she was the Relief and Rehabilitation Coordinator for victims of the ethnic and land clashes in 1992-1996 under the Catholic Diocese of Bungoma and the National Coordinator for the Peace and Development Network.

Prof. Dr. med. Meryam Schouler-Ocak is Professor for Intercultural Psychiatry, additionally, she is specialist for psychiatry and psychotherapy, specialist for neurology, additional notation in psychotherapy, particularly in trauma focused psychotherapy. Prof. Schouler-Ocak is chief physician at the Charité University Psychiatric Clinic at St. Hedwig's Hospital. Additionally, she is chair of Research Group on Intercultural Migration and Mental Healthcare, Social Psychiatry at the Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Charité - University Medical School in Berlin.

Registration for this event is closed.