Boko Haram. Chibok girls. We know the names from the international news. Conflicts are forgotten by those of us living far away, but ongoing terrorism affects the vulnerable of all faiths.
Being in Northern Nigeria allowed us to ask more questions to help us understand the real impact. Who was being served by the participants we were training? What was their context?
What issues did the children they were working with have to deal with?
The story of Mercy still lingers with me. Mercy, a little girl who had come to the Christian Faith Ministries’ Children in Crisis home, kept manifesting aggressive and regressive behavior. No one knew her story or understood the reason for this behavior, until one day when a woman from a camp for internally displaced people (IDP), showed up on their doorstep. She had been looking for her daughter and had heard that a child named Mercy was at their place. She walked all the way to reach the crisis center, where she finally found Mercy, her sole remaining child.
This is her story. She and her husband had seven children and lived in a village in the north. The father had traveled to find work, while the family stayed home and lived life. As was their practice, they went to church each Sunday. But Boko Haram had placed a bomb in their church. The bomb exploded, killing many children and scattering the rest into the bush. The mother did not know if any of her family had survived, as everyone was scattered in the aftermath of the attack. This woman is simply a mother who took her family to church.
Since her mother found her, Mercy is starting to heal. She is still in the crisis home because her mother has no home yet, and Mercy can get food, care, and schooling. Carers spoke of radical change in Mercy once she knew she still had a mom.
We train the people who work with the Mercys of the world, those traumatized and left orphaned, and those who overnight lose their world. The goodness of God is demonstrated through these faithful carers. They had so many questions, and little training in trauma-informed care. There are too many children for the amount of caregivers. They live with secondary trauma from all they hear and see. And yet they rise again. Listen again. Love again. They have propellers on their backs and rockets on their feet.
We have rarely seen such a quick turnaround on our training. Pastor James trained his staff working in an Abuja care home. Last week, Samuel and Adeboye sent photos of them teaching the teachers at their school. Comfort and Chap, who work with Mara’s home for women abused and affected by the conflict in the North, are using weekly time to work through what they learned in the Celebrating Children Workshop with the women in their care. The carers can contextualize the training and gently find their way through the hazards of pain and trauma. Ronke and Wendy are training the staff in their Crisis Home. Ronke said she loves the feeling of being able to impact others. Mirabelle from Cameroun started a course to train French-speaking pastors on February 23rd.
This model works. We see the power of condensing key truths and research into concepts in nation after nation. Evidence-based research (EBR) is a systematic process that uses data and facts to answer questions. It’s more reliable and trustworthy than research based on opinions or beliefs.
Our research has demonstrated that training seasoned, committed leaders to multiply the material is the most effective way to spread knowledge and bring change in practice. As leaders train their staff, accountability is created. Each leader contextualizes the material, and so it remains fresh. We are so grateful to work directly with people who safeguard vulnerable communities. We know their names, share their successes and failures, and together become part of the great cloud of witnesses experiencing the reality that no matter your birthplace, education, or faith, God desires that all humanity thrive.
