We are now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record, with more than 65 million forcibly displaced people and over 20 million refugees worldwide. Over 44,000 people a day are forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution; currently the greatest numbers of refugees are from Syria (UNHCR, 2018). We hosted Aleppo Supper Club, for the FD Consultants team day, a Psychosocial Support and Trauma Specialist Service. Ahmad shared his refugee journey with us, which was overwhelmed with trauma upon trauma stories. Only just surviving he persevered from one abuse to another in the hope to find freedom from torture, corruption, threat of death, and exploitation. He travelled from Turkey, Algeria, Libya and landed in what he though was Germany. As he walked along the road he was stopped by police and was informed he was in the UK. He has lived in the UK for three and a half years now. Ahmad’s journey does not end here, as it has been another journey laced with misunderstandings, fear and prejudice. After a couple of years he has found a place to call home, for now, where he is gradually learning to feel safe and trust people again. He is disturbed by trauma memories, as he describes, ‘I can shut my body off, but not my mind’, and speaks about how difficult it is to get to know people and make friends. I asked him what he wished for in his future, he said ‘I cannot return home to Syria, it will take a long time before things can change there’. He wants to ‘sleep like normal people, get an education, a job and build a family of [his] own.’ Since being in the UK, Ahmed has been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which haunts him through the night. I worked for an organisation based near the Turkish/Syrian border. I was supporting Syrian refugees working in Turkey. We found that 41% of individuals were experiencing high levels of trauma symptoms suggesting PTSD. The key stressors reported were: the Syrian conflict, instability and transition, and concern for family and friends still living in Syria (Dunkley, 2018). According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 30 and 70 per cent of people who have lived in warzones bear the scars of PTSD and depression (Badkhen, 2012). Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) training was conducted in Istanbul with mental health professionals, made up of 42 per cent from Syria, 32 per cent from Iraq and 7 per cent equally from Egypt, Jordan, Libya and Palestine. The ‘Need for Trauma-based Services Questionnaire’, concluded that ‘PTSD was the most prevalent problem reported by 80% of the Iraqi participants and 69% of the Syrian participants’ (Abdul-Hamid et al., 2016). However, participants could only meet 39 per cent of these trauma-clients’ needs, due to lack of specialist trained clinicians and resources. Ahmed, at times, has also fallen through the net of care and still awaits trauma specialist support. At FD Consultants we are acutely aware of the need for specialist trauma services, and the longer it takes for someone to get support, the more complex their symptoms can become. We offer EMDR and TF-CBT trauma specialist services as recommended by the NICE guidelines, APA and WHO. How can you help? We can all learn to provide support and care to refugees and be willing to find out more about individual’s’ personal stories. We can support Amhad, and other Syrian refugees like him, by inviting the Aleppo Supper Club to provide food for any event. The food is typically Syria such as, Humous, Mohamarrah, Yabrak and Baba Ghanouch, and, speaking from personal experience, is delicious. ‘Ultimately we want to get to a place where a lot of people are anticipating in such dinners and support for refugees becomes demonstrable and visible on the part of multiple segments of the public and that has a positive impact on public opinion and discourse and debate which, the hope is, will incentive Governments to do what’s needed to help refugees wherever they are’ (David Ponet, UNICEF Global). After a day of networking and mutual support, Ahmad states, ‘people cannot go to Aleppo, so my idea is to bring Aleppo to your table and your plate’. In his time spent with us, he brought so much more such as, insight, understanding and a deep human connection. Aleppo Supper Club contact details:
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