{"id":8196,"date":"2017-09-20T11:07:02","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T15:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/?p=8196"},"modified":"2017-09-22T12:57:45","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T16:57:45","slug":"transforming-the-front-lines-syrian-caregiving-in-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/2017\/09\/transforming-the-front-lines-syrian-caregiving-in-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Transforming the Front Lines: Syrian Caregiving in Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) funded a Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) training in 2016 for Syrian community church leaders and frontline responders and Lebanese MCC partner staff working with refugees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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TRAUMA AWARENESS SUPPORT IS \u2018AS IMPORTANT AS BREAD: ONE FEEDS OUR SPIRITS AND THE OTHER OUR BODIES.\u2019 \u2014Syrian Orthodox Church clergy member <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

WHEN DOUG AND NAOMI ENNS <\/b><\/span>began their work as Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Representatives for Lebanon and Syria in August 2013, Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program principles traveled with them. \u201cWe had taken STAR I prior to our arrival and knowing its strengths, thought it would be good to try,\u201d said Naomi Enns.<\/p>\n

The Enns posited that the benefits of bringing a more robust and integrated STAR program to the region were exponential: Through the creation of shared safe space, STAR trainings facilitate understanding of trauma and help participants implement strategies and tools to stop cycles of violence and find ways towards healing \u2013 within themselves, those they are in relationship with, and the broader community. Among the many beneficial results of STAR training are increased resiliency and networking of trauma-informed partners and caregivers across faith traditions and organizations.<\/p>\n

From the first training with Syrian Christians three years ago, STAR trainings \u2013 and the unique annual follow-up gatherings of participants \u2013 are now an integral contributor to MCC\u2019s work in the region, which continues under Kate <\/b>and Garry Mayhew<\/b>, Lebanon and Syria representatives since May 2017 (Naomi <\/b>and Doug Enns <\/b>are now Western Europe reps).<\/p>\n

From EMU\u2019s STAR program, Elaine Zook Barge <\/b>and Vernon Jantzi <\/b>have provided trainings. From MCC, the trainers and assistants have included Luzdy Stucky<\/b>, associate for migration and peacebuilding with MCC West Coast; Krista Johnson Weicksel <\/b>MA \u201910, peacebuilding coordinator; Beth Good<\/b>, health coordinator; and Heather Peters<\/b>, restorative justice coordinator. Fadi Abi Allam<\/b>, director of the Lebanon NGO Permanent Peace Movement, and Karen Friesen<\/b>, MCC representative for Egypt, have facilitated follow-up gatherings.<\/p>\n

Approximately 60 people, of increasingly diverse backgrounds, have participated. They come from a range of NGOs and church-based partners. Participants are male and female, Christian (Orthodox and evangelical) and Muslim, and from Lebanon, Egypt, and a diversity of rural and urban areas in Syria. Two trainings have included Palestinian refugees working for Lebanese partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis series of 5-day STAR trainings in Lebanon has been a key part of MCC\u2019s disaster response to the Syrian crisis, says Johnson Weicksel, herself a STAR trainer. \u201cSTAR for MCC Lebanon\/Syria partners has transformed those on the front lines of caregiving in crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weicksel notes that the program\u2019s careful, intentional implementation, including an annual follow-up gathering, has built strong ties between both individuals and partner organizations, which often send staff for further training. Organizations report stronger resiliency in STAR-trained staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know myself better now and I know that I\u2019m resilient in the trauma I\u2019m going through,\u201d said one participant, a Muslim who works alongside Christians in Aleppo and has tailored her STAR-related knowledge to work with youth.<\/p>\n

An important part of the training is learning to recognize actions, reactions and behaviors that occur in the midst of or as a result of trauma. Understanding those physical and emotional responses leads to a better understanding of how to deal with such experiences in more positive ways, and to help others understand as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to only feel the trauma, now I can see it,\u201d said one Palestinian participant.<\/p>\n

The training also provides a safe and shared space in which to grieve and grow. One male participant, whose family fled from Aleppo to the coastal city of Tartus, offered this moving description:<\/p>\n

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Sometimes when you have to move a lot and lose the things that used to make you feel safe, it\u2019s difficult to build new friendships, a safe environment, a place where you feel like you fit in. But here, you feel everyone is the same. When you speak about the things that happened to you, you find other people felt the same way at some point. Or they\u2019re feeling the same way. You feel accepted. It\u2019s really difficult to explain in words. You need to experience it. It gives you a different kind of strength that\u2019s not available elsewhere, even sometimes in our own homes. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For Naomi Enns, sharing in the laying of a foundation of resiliency will always be a treasured experience. Each session and following contact with participants affirmed the healing power of the STAR training, in which \u201cmentors and teachers who understand trauma well help others through participatory approaches to gain skills that last a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo speak about one\u2019s trauma and to be heard \u2026 there healing began,\u201d she says. \u201cAmong people who care enough to listen, their story becomes a statement that they are able to live in the present and to step into the future with a bit more hope.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TRAUMA AWARENESS SUPPORT IS \u2018AS IMPORTANT AS BREAD: ONE FEEDS OUR SPIRITS AND THE OTHER OUR BODIES.\u2019 \u2014Syrian Orthodox Church clergy member WHEN DOUG AND… Read more about Transforming the Front Lines: Syrian Caregiving in Crisis<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1073],"tags":[],"issues":[1471],"class_list":["post-8196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","issues-2017-18"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8196"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8199,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8196\/revisions\/8199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8196"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=8196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}