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| Organisers, resource persons and participants shortly after the training on lay counselling, concepts and applications, held in Gombe. |
By Williams Ago, Gombe
Seventy-five lay counselors from Funakaye, Kwami, and Akko Local Government Areas in Gombe State have completed a rigorous training program designed to equip them with essential skills for providing immediate trauma support to victims within their communities.
Amid rising insurgency, banditry, and socioeconomic challenges in Northeastern Nigeria, this initiative aims to strengthen local capacity to address the growing need for trauma management and psychological first aid.
In an effort to bring succour to these victims, the Africa Transitional Justice Legacy Fund (ATJLF) has partnered with Kishimi Shelter and Care Foundation (KSCF) and Psycare Health Rights Foundation (PHRF) in training 75 lay counselors on how to administer first-hand response to people affected by one form of trauma or the other. This is ATJLF's legacy project.
These lay counselors, who were brought together for the training at Amina Hall in Gombe, comprised of community leaders, religious leaders, teachers, health workers, security personnel, youth group and student leaders among many others, who are considered to have authority and influence in the community.
Gombe is at the centre of the northeast, which has remained an abode to thousands of displaced persons fleeing conflicts from Adamawa, Borno, Yobe States and other parts of Northern Nigeria, thus, hosting many traumatized people.
Mr. Amdo Jackson Annas, is a professional psychologist and an addiction counselor, who was one of the key trainers at the event. He explained that the aim of the training was to raise a lot of people to become counselors in their communities.
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| Participants |
"We want them to know the core issues surrounding counseling techniques," since there is less knowledge in counseling profession, leading many people to die in silence in their traumatic situations or problems.
He explained also that a lay counselor is expected to understand approaches on how to help people in trauma.
"It's not about telling them 'God is there', 'bear with the situation', 'be patient', 'its normal', and all those conventional words. They are good but not the right thing to say to people who are in trauma. They are to understand the situation of the people and try to show empathy.
"They are to prove to the trauma victim that the situation they are going through is not their fault and it's not a normal situation but something that has come accidentally and it's something that they can stand, fight and get through, bounce back and live a normal life” afterwards, he emphasized.
According to him, conflicts, poverty and the harsh economic situation in the country are some of the reasons a lot of people get traumatized, which has evidently become inevitable to have lay counselors in our communities.
He therefore described lay counselling as the act of administering 'first aid interception or treatment' to a traumatized victim.
Mr Sylvester Yibis Iliya, a renowned human rights advocate, took the lay counselors on practical basic skills in lay counselling, how to accompany a help-seeker in decision making, the act of listening, how to structure a counselling conversation, interviewing techniques and how to end a counselling session.
Mrs Grace Tony Samuel, the Executive Director of Kishimi Shelter and Care Foundation (KSCF), and John Benedict, Director, Psycare Health Rights Foundation (PHRF), coordinated the training where the lay counselors were divided into groups for team work, presentations, sharing experiences and applying knowledge to achieve learning outcomes.
Most of the participants spoken to commended the organisers of the training. One of the community leaders at the training stressed that if the knowledge gained at the training is put into practice, a lot of the ills in the society will be greatly reduced.
At the end of the training, a certificate of training was presented to all the lay counselors.
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