Since March 2000 I have been working as a trauma psychologist in Namibia, helping to set up clinical programmes and assist in the running of the PEACE (People's Education, Assistance and Counselling for Empowerment) Center, a Namibian psycho-social healing center for all survivors of organised violence. With a background of experience working with refugees and survivors of traumatic experiences in the Netherlands, South Africa and Albania (during the Kosovo crisis), I was seconded by the Dutch development organisation, PSO, to PEACE, on a two year contract.
The following is an account of the work we are attempting to do in the field of trauma counselling and therapy, describing the frustrations we are experiencing, in addition to staffing and financial limitations, set against a background of a challenging political climate. Apart from the counselling and therapy work and training of health professionals and lay counsellors described below, the PEACE Center is also involved in capacity building of local psychologists in trauma therapy, in researching the prevalence and impact of trauma in Namibia as well as being responsible for the establishment and running of a forum for the support and training of Government and NGO workers involved with survivors of trauma. In addition to this we play an active role in networks of trauma centers in the sub-Saharan region of Africa. Our involvement in these networks provides essential support for our center and staff, in our isolated position as the only psycho-social center for survivors of organised violence in Namibia.
Namibia achieved independence in 1990 after a protracted civil war. It was colonised by Germany in the 1884, and the oppression of the indigenous population included massacres and attempted genocide of certain population groups. South West Africa, as it was known at the time, became a protectorate of South Africa, its Southern neighbour, in 1915. The notorious system of apartheid was enforced in South West Africa, together with the violent oppression of any form of political resistance. The war of independence was fought largely in the North of Namibia, on the border with Angola, where most of SWAPO, the liberation movement's camps were based.
Situated on the South Western coast of Africa, the country is vast (824 269 km2). In area it is larger than Texas, or four times the size of the United Kingdom. The population of...........

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