In Her Own Words
I was 17 years old when I had to interrupt high school in 2014. I attended the last two high school years in a school in Khanke and graduated in 2016. In the same year, FYF advertised the newly started Women’s Center courses in Khanke IDP camp. As I had just finished school but still wanted to improve my English, I decided to register for the sewing, knitting, drawing, English, IT, and Women’s Rights class. While I was attending classes, FYF psychologists sometimes held short sessions about health and mental health in general. I was always very interested in that topic and when they offered training in Psychological First Aid, I decided to join. I thought it could be useful for myself and my family.
My life has changed positively since I started working as a Harikara: the job has helped me mentally, psychologically, and financially. Since I started the job, I am the sole income provider of my family. Also, whenever I have a problem, or a relative has one, I take advantage of the knowledge gained during this job and share self-help exercises. I also do them myself. As our FYF lead psychologist said: only if you can help yourself can you help others.
When I am working, some people are still scared to speak about their psychological problems – a lot of them feel ashamed. I remember a family I visited. The woman was pretending not to have any problems, but while talking to her I could clearly identify all symptoms of psychological distress, such as insomnia. I managed to convince her that a psychological problem should be treated like any other physical problem
