SHIFTING MINDSETS: COMMUNITY VIOLENCE AND THE NEXT GENERATION
The Trauma Centre in partnership with the Institute for Healing of Memories held two dialogues. In Dialogue one, a presentation on “Colonisation, Apartheid and historical trauma: is this an important set of risk factors for male violence and what can we do about it?” was presented by Professor Sandy Lazarus, Kopano Ratele and Shahnaaz Suffla from the (Medical Research Council and UNISA).
Subsequent to the presentation small group discussions took place in six break away groups. The groups were asked to reflect on the current causes of community violence in their communities as well as brainstorming a way forward. In the second dialogue Mr Cyril Adonis (CSVR-Centre for the study of violence and Reconciliation) presented his research work on the 2nd generation. Three break away groups were formed subsequent to the presentation. The groups had to reflect on the following: The past and its impact on the new generation, the contributing factors of violent behaviour exhibited by the new generation and ways forward on bridging the trans-generational gap.
The Trauma Centre conducted a situational analysis assessment with a group of Zimbabweans who were affected by the xenophobia outbreak in De Doorns: The staff members had informal conversations with the displaced group to determine their perceptions and interpretation of the situation. From this it was noted that much advocacy around foreign national experiences and rights needs to happen as well as psycho-education for both South African citizens and foreign nationals, as misperceptions seem to be one of the many leading causes of xenophobia.
ECLECTIC & COLLABORATIVE APPROACHES IN ADDRESSING CRIME
The launch of the Gugulethu project, with the support of the Gugulethu community as well as all involved proved, to be a great success. With this project the Trauma Centre hopes to ensure employment of an eclectic approach in dealing with the root causes of crime in the community.
THE TRAUMA CENTRE GOING GLOBAL: EGYPT & BULGARIA
Since 2008 the Political Violence Programme has been involved in collecting data about torture for the Global Project. In July, staff attended the Global Project evaluation meeting in Cairo, Egypt where this data was presented.. Six countries meeting, sharing knowledge and interventions on the rehabilitation of victims of torture was an amazing experience for all. Field practice experiences were also transferred and an opportunity was created for all to engage with each other about the history and cultures of our various home countries. To finally see the fruits of our hard work, made the Global Project evaluation meeting a very proud and rewarding experience.The Political Violence Programme’s work with the 2nd generation was presented at an international conference "Political Persecution in Different Contexts: What are the psychological consequences for the subject and the Next Generations?" in Sofia, Bulgaria. Great interest was specifically shown towards our 2nd generation camps and the use of the outdoors/wilderness as our classrooms.
Interesting dialogs. It would be interesting to hear about the misperceptions that lead to violence and to what degree economics was an agravating factor in these misperceptions. On a practical level, would joint enterprise erode some of the economic friction and help reduce the volume of violence at all? i am suggesting joint projects that involve people from different communities.
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