Murigo Veneranda, (in the middle) one of Peaceful Heart Networks Trauma Tappers in Rwanda has done a great scheme of TTT trainings for refugees in Kigema camp at the congolese border. After training eight of the responsible people in the camp, she has obliged them to train five people each in the camp till next time she comes. And then those 40 are going to train five each and so on. That is how you create a movement! If you have seen the film “Pay it forward” this is similar.

Will it be possible to reach all 14 000 in the camp? 

The refugees fled from DR Congo to Rwanda last year during the attacks of rebel groups during the M23 offensive.

Murigo and myself will go to Kigeme tomorrow.

I find it truly inspiring to visit and see the work done by the Trauma Tapping teams we support in DR Congo. The other day I went to see  the Trauma Tapping Centre in Bukavu. To get there you go from the centre of the city  towards the port, then turn up one of the hills overlooking Lake Kivu, passing the Psychiatric Hospital Sosame  and then you go down on a local unpaved road leading through the community called Kalele. All along the way people are moving, children on their way to school in their white and blue uniforms, others carrying loads on their heads, minibuses with the conductor hanging out the door to get more passengers, motorbikes… 

The TTT centre is just in the centre of the community in a small whitewashed house. The doors are open to anybody and somebody from the team is  present  more or less every day except sunday. People come by having heard about the centre from somebody, having heard that here is a place where you can get help when you have heavy thoughts, can´t sleep, are feeling sad or have thought about suicide because of problems and events you have lived through. Nobody has offered that before. But the needs are there.

I am welcomed by the Trauma Tapping team: Germando, Sylvie, Duni and Batu. Before we sit down to talk they receive and treat some clients who have already come to see them: a young girl of 17 who has difficulties to concentrate in school because of thinking of her parents who have died. A woman who suffers from insomnia and headache after losing her husband. An old man on crutches having amputated  his leg after an operation who says he feels useless and often gets angry for nothing. He has tried to hang himself twice.

“You know even a small problem for one person can destabilize a whole family and that family can destabilize the  whole community”, comments Germando after treating the old man. “That is what we see happening here. So many are living with traumas after years of conflict, difficult economy and frustration.”

The others agree and confirms how needed this centre has shown to be. When approaching schools and churches talking about trauma, how it shows and that it can be treated, they always get the same comment:

“Oh yes, you are right trauma is a big problem for us.”

“There should be centers like this everywhere to help people”, says Batu. “Then people would understand of what trauma is  and how it affects people and the society. And learn how to deal with it. The whole world should learn TTT, that is my opinion after experiencing this technique.”

“Yes, it is such a great feeling to see a smile from somebody who was so sad and traumatized before getting treated”, adds Germando. “Imaging if we could stop worrying about financing the center and focus on starting a new one in for example in Nindja where people have experiences so much violence from all the armed groups. I just hope people understand how much every dollar they donate means here. Even the smallest contribution is one more day of work made possible for us.” 

I met legendary Peace Builders Pastor Wuye and Imam Ashafa from Nigeria and the filmmaker Alan Channer, who has filmed documentaries about their work, a year ago in Canada. We all soon realized how well our different missions fit together. At a later point we reunited in Chad under the black Saharan sky, and continued our discussions how to work together. In November it came true in Kenya.

Imam Ashafa and Pastor Wuye were enemies, one being part of a muslim militia and the other of a christian one. Finally they realized the futility in being enemies and started working together building a platform to be able to assist groups of people to build peace.

Because of the documentary of Alan Channer, their work got known worldwide. Today they are invited all over the globe to assist people in reconciliation and peace building processes. Their method is well received because it has given positive results in many places.

Imam Ashafa and Pastor Wuye recognize the work of Peaceful Heart Network and the methodology of Trauma Tapping. During our joint workshop in Kenya they introduced the method to the participants who came from different ethnic groups:

“This Trauma Tapping is a new and universal method. The method crosses over all the borders of spiritual traditions, nationality, gender and race. And it is so simple. We need such an approach to help those who are traumatized and to be able to build long lasting peace.“

We held the TTT training as part of the reconciliation work, showed our videos from other workshops and exchanged experiences on symptoms of trauma and what makes people traumatized.

One of the participants, the tall Chief Zephaniah Lekachuma from the cattle herders in the north west of Kenya, was very keen to learn. I asked him to demonstrate his new knowledge to the others and have them to follow the procedure from him instead of me. He was more than willing.

I asked how he found the Tapping:

“I feel very relaxed”, he said somewhat surprised. “Specially when tapping on the chest and on the eyebrows. I will definitely use this in my area. So many people come to my office and tell they are traumatized for different reasons.”

Everybody applauded him and laughed in the relaxed atmosphere that mostly settles after a trauma tapping training.

After the workshop Pastor Wuye wrote:

“Thank you for what you offered to the people of Kenya. Many said you have given them a life long gift.”

http://www.anafricananswer.org/node/67678

————

Here is a trailer to the film “An African Answer” about the work of Imam Ashafa and Pastor Wuye:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnfJnrtXliU

“For anyone who wants to do holistic peacemaking, you need to recognize and know how to handle trauma — because conflict is about causing injuries to people.”

These words come from the manual on Peace building that comes with the film “An African Answer”. These words that made me happy, because this resonates with the thinking of Peaceful Heart Network: “you need to address the trauma to be able to build long lasting peace!”

It is a dream coming true to work with these committed people and be able to move trauma work to being part of reconciliation.

The workshops were arranged in a collaboration between Initiatives of Change (www.iofc.org) and US Institute of Peace (www.usip.org)

In the community of Mumosho, just outside Bukavu in Eastern DR Congo we have been supporting a Trauma Tapping Centre since early 2012 (pls check earlier text in the blog). There are three persons managing the centre on a regular basis, receiving clients and giving trainings. The response from the community has been very positive. Mr Amani Matabaro, our contact person and organizer wrote the other day a mail about the importance of the work:

Amani Matabaro, responsible for the Mumosho Trauma Tapping Center.

“Mumosho is one of the war affected places in the Eastern Congo which has remained with no humanitarian assistance. During the wars of invasion against DR Congo, Mumosho has served as a port of entry to foreign troops and prior to that the area has hosted a huge amount of the refugees after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, hence Mumosho has been affected on several dimensions.

Several attacks by armed groups have terrorized people in Mumosho. Not only these have been the problems but also SINELAC, a Great Lakes Region power company and Pharmakina, a German company known for their Quinine Malaria medicine project, have put all the fertile lands in Mumosho on a compulsory purchase request order.

All this together have left almost everyone in the community so poor, desperate, frustrated, living with everyday fear, traumatized, sad, angry, jumpy, anxious….

Soon after the TTT centre had opened in the area, most of the clients who have attended and taken TTT as a treatment have gradually been recovering from their symptoms which for a very long time have affected their thoughts and emotions. Many of those who come to the center tell that they have recovered from insomnia, everyday headache, fatigue and many other PTS symptoms.

There is need to disseminate the TTT treatment at a very large scale, make it sustainable at different community levels and this includes schools, health facilities and other places with large populations. TTT in Mumosho has shown it is an efficient treatment, and only requires an effective dissemination approach to reach those in need! It is necessary also with more trainings in schools for teachers to become able to handle war affected kids.”

TTT training for men in Mumosho.

Mr Safari Maneno, headmaster of one of the primary schools in Mumosho.

Celebrating TTT certification at the Trauma Tappig Center in Mumosho. 

Bukavu Tapping Centre

Another Trauma Center of Peaceful Heart Network is in the city of Bukavu, also this in the conflict prone region of Eastern DR Congo.

TTT training at the Bukavu Trauma Tapping Centre.

The reports from the Bukavu Centre, like from Mumosho, keep telling us: Healing IS possible! It also tells how many symptoms of trauma people live with and how it affects their daily life. There is truly so much value in helping the population in this sensitive area. Please check for yourself the results form Bukavu: click here

The results from the Bukavu Centre would not be possible without the hard work of Germando Barathi and his two colleagues. Germando was one of the first to be trained in TTT in Eastern Congo back in 2008. He and his colleagues are constantly finding new ways of spreading the Trauma Tapping to individuals, organizations and communities.

Right now the team at the Bukavu Centre is planning for a workshop in another community called Nindja where people have suffered attacks from different militias. They will also make a TTT introduction to IRC – International Rescue Committee – one of the biggest international humanitarian organizations in the area.

The Bukavu Peaceful Heart Network also belongs to a coordinating group of initiators working on mental health, including the internationally renowned Panzi Hospital, the Psychiatric Hospital Sosame as well as international organizations like Warchild and IRC.

For those who want to learn about the situation in Eastern Congo please check: www.enoughproject.org

Initiative in Rwanda

In Rwanda there are several organizations using the TTT after the trainings we have conducted there. There are also individuals committed to spread the method. One of them, Murigo Veneranda, who was in the first group of young survivors of the genocide that we educated in 2007, has recently taken several initiatives.

She is conducting trainings in TTT in refugee camps at the border between DR Congo and Rwanda called Kigeme. There has recently been large number of people fleeing to Rwanda from North Kivu in DR Congo because of violence and rising conflict around the mining areas. In the Kigeme camp there are approximately 14 000 refugees.

“People in the camp love the TTT and how simple the method is to learn. They say it helps them in their daily life and enhance their health” writes Murigo.

Murigo Veneranda knowns very well by her own experience how much the tapping can change in a persons life.

” Without TTT I don´t know if I would be alive today”, she says. “This method is very good because you can help also those who have a lot of problems but do not want to talk about them. I am ready to work with TTT everywhere I go.”

Making it happen – a well needed and used donation

Last August we received an email from Rob Nelson the organizer of an EFT Gathering (Emotional Freedom technique – the most widely spread version of Energy Psychology) in California, US. The email said in brief:

“The participants of the EFT Gathering will make a contribution to a project working with Tapping. We will probably raise between 2000 and 3000 dollars. We have decided to donate the money to Peaceful Heart Network. Thank you for all the great work you are doing.”

In the end we got 4000 dollars! This donation will help us to continue running the Trauma Tapping Centers in Bukavu and Mumosho in Estern DR Congo and also fund some other projects during the coming months. If you have any ideas about how we could find other similar opportunities for funding our work please let us know.

Help us make people get out of their prison of trauma and laugh and be happy again! 

Conversation a Saturday afternoon in the office of Human Rights Without Borders, downtown N´djamena, the capital of Tchad. Lawyer Daniel asks me:

“What did you know about Tchad before coming here?” 

 “Not much,… I knew that Lake Tchad is shrinking and that there are a lot of refugees from Sudan …. that´s all….” I answered feeling somewhat ignorant.

“Not bad at all!” lawyer Daniel exclaims happily with a broad smile. “When I came to the international airport in Japan last year the passport control officer stared at my passport. Then he looked up at me and shouted:

“Ha! Did you make this passport yourself??!!! Tchad!! where should that country be ?”

“We here in Tchad, we know that Japan exists…” laughs lawyer Daniel.

*********

I fell in love with Tchad

After two weeks in Tchad I thought of making myself a T-shirt with the text: I <3 Tchad – you know with the heart between “I” and “Tchad” – like ”I <3 NY”. 

 Few have made me feel so warmheartedly welcome as the people I met in Tchad.  I could not resist being taken by this country in the middle of Africa –  the breastbone of the continent.

Tchad is very hot. And dusty. Semi desert. Everybody asks somewhat excusing: ”Comment ça va avec la chaleur?” How do you cope with the heat? 

Governments have treated people badly in Tchad. You could think you would meet “victims” but they are all “survivors”. This resilience keeps fascinating me. Be it here in Tchad or in Congo, Sierra Leone or Rwanda. People who have been through so many hardships, still they are  smiling and caring  for others. And accepting and trusting even a stranger like me.

I was invited to Tchad by the lawyer Hassan Abakar. One of those gentle and compassionate Tchadians. We met at a conference in Switzerland last summer. He asked me about meditation and how he could practice. We started talking. We soon got in to the theme of trauma. He told me that there was no help to be found for those traumatized after the terror executed by a dictator, the Hissein Habré regime. No clinics. No therapists. No mental hospital. 

“Gunilla, could you come to Tchad?” he asked. That is how this initiative started. A meeting of serendipity. 

After one of the TTT trainings in N´Djamena I join the group of women resting outside the hall. We all have dresses in bright colours. We sit down in the shadow.  

“Thank you for coming so far,  to us here in Tchad”, they say.

“Nobody has offered us peace of mind before. We didn´t know it was possible. Now we know.” 

We chat. One of them brings dried dates and newly fried peanuts. The peanuts are so good. We also need water…. lots of water. A young boy brings a bucket of water as we continue to chat. The women are survivors of torture, but I wonder if anybody who saw them now would guess… 

If you are interested in finding out more about techniques and therapies in the domain called Energy Psychology – where Trauma Tapping Technique is one of them – there are international conferences each year. These conferences are great meeting places for learning about new approaches, research  being done and getting connected to people with different experiences of using Energy Psychology. The two most known are the one arranged by ACEP (Association of Comprehensive Energy Psychology) in San Diego, in the US (www.energypsych.org) and by CAIET (Canadian Association for Integrative and Energy Therapies) in Toronto, Canada.(www.caiet.org). In Europe the Energy Psychology Congress takes place in Heidelberg, Germany.

Robert Ntabwoba demonstrates TTT at the CAIET conference in Canada.

Last October me and my Rwandese colleague Robert Ntabwoba were invited to the CAIET conference to hold a session about our work of healing trauma in post conflict areas in Africa. Apart from the pleasure of sharing ideas and experiences the conference gave us perspectives and insights about our work. We realized that quite few work in “the field” on community level with Energy Psychology methods like we do. Our simplified tapping protocol without so called “set up phrases” also surprised the seminar participants: “Aha, that might be a way I should use with my client who does not want to tell her story….” “So it works without words?! I have to try…!” were some of the comments we got. Our results of healing traumatized survivors of war and other kind of violence also made many interested. They found it encouraging that people can heal from such severe traumas in such a gentle and empowering way.

We didn´t know we had such a different approach. We learnt a lot. Life is a fascinating learning process. More to come!  

Thanks to our participation in the CAIET conference we have now been invited to another conference: EFT Gathering/Canada that will be held in Toronto 21- 22 of April 2012 (www.eftgatheringcanada.com) Join the exploration of Energy Psychology! There is a lot still to be discovered. And like the Nobel Prize Laureate in Medicine Albert Szent-Györgyi’s states:

“In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy.”

Keep moving! 

City of Joy in Bukavu in eastern Congo – is an initiative to change the role of women by transforming pain to power.

One of the many fascinating things about being in Congo is meeting all these people who want to be – and are – part of change and peacemaking. I love the conversations and the visions evolving, making you realize how we all can contribute to make our world a safer and more happy place to live in.   

“Be the change you want to see in the world” is the quote from Mahatma Gandhi always to be remembered. Just changing ones attitude to other people can make a lot of difference. Looking at things from a different angle. Change is always possible.

Many of my congolese friends and colleagues have dedicated their lives to make a change in their country: to save the forests, assist the pygmies, liberate child soldiers, heal trauma, reinforce women, reconcile between people etc etc. And my white friends – the muzungus – who have come here to do their part by sharing their special knowledge and skills.

During one of those conversations – with a spine surgeon from New York who has started a project to offer operations to people who have damaged their spine, often due to falling while working in the mines – I came to think of a favourite poem by Rainer Maria Rilke:

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for may for once spring clear without my contriving.
If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do
flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

I know that every person has this ability to change the world exactly where they are, and you have probably found what you can do easily to make a difference, right?

In Ottawa there is a War museum. Last fall they had a very interesting exhibition called “Medicine at War.”  A special section about the psychological effects of war was named “The Mind”. 

Pictures and videos telling about different treatments that were used for those who showed distressful symptoms after combat and experience of war. Testimonies from  soldiers, their relatives and commanders: the mother whose son who committed suicide when finally returning alive from Iraq, the UN General Dallaire who after not being allowed to act when realizing a genocide was being planned in Rwanda, and ever since have been traumatized, the Canadian soldier from Afghanistan saying: “The war is within you whatever you do, apart from that it was a perfect job…”   , and the wife of a returning soldier: “It is frightening because you don´t know what kind of person you wake up beside – the nice guy you married or the angry, violent one he also has become since coming back form the war.”

There have been many theories about what the symptoms were caused by and what could be done about them. A concept of Vietnam Syndrome – later renamed PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder  – was not publicized until 1981 after the Vietnam War and included as a diagnosis in the DSM III, the bible of psychiatric diagnosis. This is what generally would be called trauma.

Before that these kind of symptoms were considered being a fatigue/tiredness of combat, ie something you were supposed to heal from by resting for some time. After resting one would be sent back to the battle field. It was called things like: exhaustion, War neurosis and the patients were called war shakers, war tremblers etc. Some were condemned to war crime and executed  because they could not fight when sent back to the front. Instead they collapsed or got “crazy”. 

One of the first filmed documentations about the psychological effects of war was done in 1946 by the famous filmmaker John Houston: “Let there be light”. If you are interested check this link:

The film was banned for many years by the American authorities according to some because they did not want to show the devastating psychological effects of war.

Now there is recognition that war and similar experiences can cause severe psychological problems. According to the statistics 20 percent of the returning  american soldiers would be diagnosed with PTSD. This means 300 000 former soldiers from different US wars are traumatized.  And the consequences are showing: many of them lose their jobs, get homeless and end up in prison. Their traumas create violence and difficult to live in peace with others. Some  

In US there is a so called Veteran´s day on the 11 of november, a day for recognizing the deeds and sufferings of the so called “Vets”, the War Veterans i e the former soldiers. In Canda the same day is called Remembrance Day which then includes also the victims of war. Just in the Vietnam war hundreds of thousands of people were killed and many still suffer from the chemicals used. And how many are traumatized? 

At the end of the exhibition there is a conclusion:

“War and violence can cause invisible injuries. /../The lingering effects of war on the mind can last long after the fighting ends. The importance of medicine at war is to save lives and to restore hope to those traumatized in war”. 

This means that it is still considered difficult or impossible to heal the traumas of war. “Restore hope” is not  healing. But for us working with Energy Psychology and different Tapping protocols in conflict and post-conflict areas as well as with returning soldiers in for example the US or Canada know that it is very possible to heal war traumas. Keep spreading the word about the advantages of EP and Tapping to those in need. Victims and perpetrators. Military and civilians.There is a campaign going on in the US to highlight the healing possibilities for war trauma with Energy Psychology – and in this case specifically with the technique called EFT- Emotional Freedom Technique: 

http://www.change.org/petitions/how-to-heal-the-sights-and-sounds-of-combat-trauma

A very good film showing the consequences of war in soldiers and their families is “Brothers” by the Danish director Susanne Bier. Highly recommended! 

In Mumosho, like in Eastern Congo in general, women are more or less considered a production unit: they should give birth to many children (and absolutely not only girls), take care of the house and serve the husband, cultivate the land and work elsewhere to earn money. The most stunning image are all the women walking deeply bent along the roads with loads on their backs weighing up to 80 kilos. Beside men walk leisurely. And above all there is an alarming degree of sexual violence. You need a lot of strength and resilience to be a woman in Eastern Congo. And resilience is there. And strength. Meet the women of Mumosho.

I come to Mumosho to have a tapping training together with Amani Matabaro who is originally from there and has created an organization to support projects in his community. Specially for women and children. With us are also Cate Haight and Rebecca Snavely from the US who supports and funds Amani´s projects through their Action Kivu (www.actionkivu.org).

15 women are gathered in a small room of bricks that we have borrowed from one of the primary schools in Mumosho. Beautifully dressed as women always are in Congo. Ready to learn and and see if this tapping really can make a change.

I ask about the symptoms of trauma. One of the women, Françoise, a single mother of five children, says with an obvious experience:
“We know trauma very well here. Too well. Trauma is like a wound inside your heart. It hinders you from feeling fine or happy. When you are traumatized you get weak. A piece of land that used to take one day to cultivate will instead take over a month. You have headaches no matter what medicine you take. The heart beats so hard that it hurts. And sleeping is just something you dream about being able to do”

The other 15 women in the room nods acknowledging and start speaking very openly about the problems women live through. Mapendo, who also is a councellor for people living with hiv and Aids tells she was thrown out of her house by her in-laws because she had only given birth to four girls and no boy.  She stands up and adds to what Francoise said:

“When you are traumatized people look at you they ask if you are sick, because you look sad and miserable. Young people look old.” She straightens the beautiful scarf she skillfully has arranged around the hair and gives us a smile.

Apart from being a deeply inequal society Eastern Congo has been the scene for violence and war since 15 years back when the genocide in Rwanda ended and spilled over the border to neighbouring Congo. The reasons for the conflict are many but a vital component for making it long lasting is the fact that the area is very rich in minerals – minerals needed in all electronic devices used in the world: specifically mobile phones and laptops (see enoughproject video). Mumosho is right on the border between the two countries and have been therefore been looted and attacked too many times. One armed group after the other coming and accusing the population for supporting the other groups. And therefore punishing them.

“You know, we so much need a technique like the tapping to help ourselves and others” says Esperance Mapendo who is a nurse and participated in a TTT training already some months ago (see “Peace Tappers in Mumosho”  further down in the blog).

“Women have suffered a lot here and still do. In their marriages, in the community and from the violence of this ongoing armed conflict. Probably 80 percent of us are traumatized”.

All of the women get into the discussion about trauma. Very engaged.  One after the other they continue giving more examples of how people get traumatized. We note them down on the blackboard:

-Women who have been raped get traumatized – not only from the rape itself but also for being pointed at by the others in the community. The shame feels so bad that she get traumatized again. They often isolate themselves.

– A woman who gives birth after being raped will also suffer also for that. And the child will be traumatized too since they are seen as children of the enemy.

– People living with hiv and aids are also marginalized and feel shame – just because they are sick and people have a lot of prejudices.And they also fear death and that their children will be orphans.

– Children who are orphans of war or aids are also traumatized. They see other children being taken care of – but they, they are alone.

-Many women are left by their husbands. Some men marry and then after producing a lot of children they leave and get another wife. But still they will ask the first woman for the money she earns to buy things for the new wife. No wonder getting traumatized while trying to care for all the children by oneself in that way. One feels like dying.

– If you don´t get pregnant fast enough after marriage your husband will leave you. Nobody will marry you again.

– When your husband dies, you and you children loses the right to the house and the land. That gives a trauma for survival.

-Families who have had their houses looted or burnt down by different armed groups don´t feel safe in their homes. And as soon as they see a soldier they get traumatized again.

Etc, etc, etc

Even Amani, being from the community gets amazed by the reality the women live in.

“We must start discussing these questions in the community so tht things can change!“ he says. Applaud from the women.

Then we list all the symptoms of trauma that the women have recognized in themselves and others in the community. When the list is already long one of the women says:

“I think this list is long enough, and do you know, some people have ALL these symptoms!: headaches, difficult to sleep, getting angry without reason, feeling isolated, lack of appetite, feeling weak… and even more. Imagine the lives we live!”

We start practicing TTT. First how to do it on themselves. Then they treat each other two by two. We regroup the plastic chairs to give some space to each couple. “Can we start?” asks Esperence. And they do. Silence falls over the little room. Only the sound of children repeating French sentences from the next classroom is heard. When finishing the tapping the silence remains. The 15 women sit relaxed, a bit leaned back. Beatrice, a widow with nine children, sits up with a smile, breaking the silence by saying:

“Wow, this technique is nice. I was like somewhere else during the tapping – like in paradise – feeling like  flying”.

Everybody laughs and starts talking abut the experience of the tapping and how this could help the people in the community. We make a groups for discussing and then another list on the blackboard about how to reach out. A lot of suggestions appear.

Esperance, the nurse, makes a summary of  the discussions:

“We like this treatment! It is easy. We will use it and we promise we will spread this to as many as possible. We will also approach the leaders of our community. It will make a change in our society like the way I have changed myself. I have practiced since the first time I had the training last time you were here. You know my husband left me with all my kids. He went to live with another woman. It was a heavy burden for me and it made me deeply traumatized. Every time we met in the village we would fight – with slaps and fists! People used to say that I was crazy like a mad woman.

But now after having used this treatment I can forgive my husband. I don´t fight with him anymore when we meet. I have realized that it is a normal problem, something that happens to many, not only to me. Now people say: “What has happened to her? She is so calm!”

She continues: “Yes, I have really changed. And I want others to experience the same thing.

We should have a special place where people could come and get treated and learn. Like a center. In that way we would reach many people and make it more formal and recognized. There we could also have discussions about gender related questions so that we can start changing the roles of men and women. “

Laughter and applauds. From the women and us.

Esperence´s comment confirms to me and Amani that we should do our best to create a Peace Trauma Tapping Center in Mumosho.

To do this we would need funding to compensate some of these women to do the trauma tapping and to pay rent for a house to be in.  50-100 SEK or 10 USD per month would take us a long way 🙂 Do You Want To Join us to make it real and in that way be part of making a difference in Eastern Congo?

Click our DONATE page…. anything is more than nothing!

ps. To know more about the confllict in DR Congo check Enough project’s (www.enoughproject.org) video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF-sJgcoY20&feature=player_embedded

Just have to share this story about Charles, a former child soldier from Gulu in the northern part of Uganda. I know Charles  through the project that I work with since many years: The World´s Children´s Prize www.worldschildrensprize.org.

Charles  was kidnapped and forced in to the LRA – Lord Resistance Army in Uganda – when he was about 10 years old. He was a soldier for over three years. After escaping and getting back in to his community he was later invited to US to cycle around Ohio to raise money for an organization campaigning to make people aware of what happens to children in war zones like Uganda.

Sounded all well. Charles also turned out to be a very good cyclist. But instead of being gratified for his participation he ended up being used as a slave – working for the manager of the project on his farm taking care of and cleaning for the cows, horses and sheep, making fences, moving heavy stones, driving the tractor and loading whatever etc etc. He was not  allowed to eat with the family, not even getting good food. He should just always do what the manager commanded him to do.

Not only that. He had to go around telling about his experiences as a child soldier over and over again at different events. Every time he got re-traumatized and had difficult to sleep because of the nightmares haunting him. The organization said they supported the building of a school in his home village and that his family back in Uganda was getting money. But no money was sent.

Charles finally escaped after finding out how to use internet and getting in contact with an other former child soldier who had made her way in the US – writing a book and getting established in the society. Now Charles lives with a friend and has got help from a lawyer to work on his status in the US, studies English and want to take a drivers license to get himself a good job.

He says his experiences of humiliation and exploitation in the US have been even worse than being a child soldier. Because he was forced to be a soldier, but he chose voluntarily to come to the US.

I met him recently when I went to the US for some meetings. We sat in a café talking for quite some time. So long since we met! Then we had a tapping session together with another friend, Tasnim, on a bench in the Boston Common Park. It was the best and most peaceful place we could find even though it was cold under the full moon of November. 

Charles and Tasnim in Boston Common Park. We are all friends from The Wolrd´s Children´s Prize.

Some days later I talked to Charles over Skype:

”When you started the tapping I wondered really what that was all about. But I thought: “Let me try.” And just after a moment I started feeling really, really good. It was GREAT! I felt so relaxed and warm even though we were outside and it was kind of cold. (laughter)

That evening I went to bed at 8.30. I never used to go to bed that early! And I slept till past 8 am the next morning. I slept like the day I was born! Like a baby! I didn´t wake up even one time during the night. Before I only slept one-two hours at a time. I have a lot of medicines for sleeping. But they never gave me this kind of sleep. I could have slept even longer, but my neighbour knocked on my door.

I love this tapping very much. I feel really, really peaceful when I do it. It is so cool! I have to say – that this is the very best science. The one who found this treatment is very smart – he knows exactly how the body works. The tapping goes direct in to to the head, to the mind. I am so happy that somebody could find out such a treatment. It helps me so much. We do it all the time now – me and my friend who was also a child soldier.

Everybody can see how I have changed after this tapping. They say: ”What has happened to him? Why is he smiling all the time.” And I say: ”I´m finally being me again”. I hope that the sad me never comes again. And if he does – I will tap him away.” ( a big smile and laughter)

I am so happy that i finally could meet Charles and give him this tool. When I last met him in 2003 I didn´t know TTT. And Charles didn´t know English. Keep tapping Charles!