In Nigeria many are desperately searching for answers right now. Nigerians have seen their loved ones slaughtered. Some have watched their homes, businesses, villages, and religious places set ablaze and destroyed. Husbands have helplessly watched their wives be raped and humiliated. Ordinary people have been killed and roasted publically.
Hearts are hurting and the suffering is deep.
For over a decade, northern Nigeria has experienced different levels of multi-faceted crises leading to colossal loss of lives and property. Thousands of people are traumatized, resulting in a range of different cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral effects which impact communities negatively.
The effect of trauma on individuals can spiral out of control, deepen mistrust and cause a dramatic influence on communities if not handled well. Additional human rights violations might be fueled. Feelings of frustration result in revenge and another cycle of violence across generations.
If perpetrators or those perceived as culprits still live in the same environment with the victims, handling trauma becomes that much more difficult. A good process of trauma healing can prevent future violence and promote reconciliation.
In the past three months World Renew has been working with traumatized victims to process their various challenges in group settings in order to find individual, group, and community healing, as well as extend forgiveness to one another and build personal and collective resilience.
World Renew has embarked on a trauma-healing project in northern Nigeria in recognition of the importance trauma healing plays for individuals and communities, to equip victims and religious groups so that they may make a positive difference.
Christianity and Islam are the two most dominant religions in Nigeria. Both Christians and Muslims have been victims of crises in northern Nigeria in the last decade. World Renew uses the book Healing the Wounds of Trauma by Harriet Hill, Margaret Hill, Richard Bagge, and Pat Miersma, which is appropriate for both Christians and Muslims, to facilitate group discussions on the following topics:
- If God loves us, why do we suffer?
- How can the wounds of our hearts be healed?
- What happens when someone is grieving?
- How can we help others who have experienced bad things?
- How can we take our pain to God?
- How we can forgive others?
- How we can live as people of faith in the midst of conflict?
- Capacity building to face the future
In the past three months World Renew has been working with traumatized victims to process their various challenges in group settings in order to find individual, group, and community healing, as well as extend forgiveness to one another and build personal and collective resilience.
Twenty-four persons have been trained in two states and are now leading eighteen groups (9 male, and 9 female). A total of 180 traumatized persons (90 males and 90 females) are involved. The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) trauma-healing specialist will, on behalf of World Renew, train leaders in Adamawa State, where the Church of the Brethren is dominant and currently going through heightened violence. Leaders in three additional states will be trained early December by Bill Foute, another experienced trauma-healing specialist.
World Renew is building on past experience in working with community people in northern Nigeria to avoid reprisal attacks and promote peaceful co-existence while appreciating diversity.
The Ecumenical Centre for Justice and Peace, a partner of World Renew, is mobilizing communities and churches to promote peace between farmland owners and nomadic cattle herders. Similarly, the Beautiful Gate, another partner of World Renew, continues to work hard to advocate for peace and to bring Christians and Muslims together while meeting the disability needs of people of both faiths. This act of mercy through the love of Christ is doing so much in promoting peaceful co-existence among Christians and Muslims in northern Nigeria. This is making it possible for Christians and Muslims to eat together, reason together as friends, and de-emphasize differences and embrace diversity.
In October 2014, the Beautiful Gate presented hundreds of wheelchairs and other disability aids to Christians and Muslims in public places. These occasions were graced by highly-placed Christians and Muslims. Messages of peace and unity were well expressed by leaders of both faiths. As the needs of the poor are met there is constant re-echoing of the words of the healed blind man in Jesus’ early ministry days, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see!” (John 9:25).
Christian and Muslim leaders are praying and calling their followers to restrain from violence and to embrace dialogue and tolerance. Christians gather in worship praying to God for peace, calling their members to be tolerant and love their neighbors as themselves.
Not long ago, a church in Jos offered its premises for distribution of relief materials to Christians and Muslims just days after the church suffered complete destruction of two of its buildings including a newly constructed and furnished parsonage following a religiously motivated violence.
In January of 2012, some concerned Muslims in Kano paid a solidarity visit to five churches in the Sabon Gari area of the municipality. The Muslim leaders were quoted as saying to the Christians, “We are here to deliver a message, a message of peace, a message of hope, a message of peace, a message of solidarity that all Muslims all over Kano are with you, that they are not a source of threat to you but a source of security and in them you have a dependable ally.” These efforts are yielding good results! Many individuals and groups have been encouraged to restrain themselves from embarking on violent measures in addressing their grievances.
In spite of the complexity and multifaceted nature of the insurgence in northern Nigeria, the hand of God is visible and His control evident.
World Renew calls on everyone to continue to pray for the church in Nigeria, that the church can continue to be light and salt in a similar way Jesus did when He was faced with severe trials and persecution.
Let us also continue to pray for Muslims who are peace advocates, that God will give them wisdom and courage to stand for what is right. Pray for all tiers of government and security agents in Nigeria working round the clock to contain this great evil in the history of the land.
Photo top: Trauma healing groups meet; males and females meet separately