Trauma & Reconciliation
Provision of counselling services and training of psychosocial counsellors in Kosovo
In mid 1999, with the conflict in the former Yugoslavia at its height and over 1 million Kosovo Albanians displaced in refugee camps in Albania and Macedonia, One to One Children’s Fund set up a crisis centre in Shkodra, Albania, providing a place of comfort and counselling for some of the most traumatized women and children refugees living in camps in the area.
In the Prizren and Peja/Pec regions in southern and western Kosovo, where some of the worst atrocities took place:
- 80% of all families suffered from some form of physical violence, including rape
- more than 40% lost at least one family member
- more than 80% lost their homes
- 20% of the families are without husbands
- 37.6% have been diagnosed with a medical (physical and psychological) condition
At that time, there was only one trained child psychotherapist in Kosovo.
In those two regions we established two counselling centres for traumatised women and children and engaged 14 local people to work as counsellors. As there were no local professionally trained, they were selected on the basis of their life experiences, high levels of empathy and first-hand knowledge of many of the issues affecting potential clients. Today the centres provide approximately 500 consultation sessions per month, as well as offering outreach work in local schools and 50 villages in the two municipalities.
In 2005, while many other NGOs were pulling out of the region, we took the decision to solidify our previous efforts by initiating an 18 month counselling course, followed by a second course in 2008-2009 for government social workers working in the 10 municipalities of the country.
Throughout the years, One to One Children’s Fund has made a critically important contribution to mitigating the effects of war-related trauma on large numbers of parents and children, paving the way for a generation of relatively healthy and unaffected children.
In a message from the Prime Minister of Kosovo, delivered at the graduation of the first cohort of trauma counsellors, he said: “This is an important moment for Kosovo and its people. One to One Children’s Fund has proved to be of great support to our country and a trusted partner.”
Impact Assessment of Kosovo counselling work, 2006/2007
Evaluation of One to One Kosovo Project 2009
Final Report on Counselling Centres and Training Programmes February 2010
Background on One to One CF Trauma Healing Programmes in Kosovo
Lessons from South Africa that help change lives in Kosovo