SOUTHFIELD — Sexual violence and psychosocial issues are continuing to impact victims of the ongoing Syrian conflict.
On Mar. 10 the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) raised awareness on the plight of Syrian refugees at the event, ‘From Anguish to Action: Psychosocial Conflicts in the Syrian Crisis.’
The informative discussion was held at the Silver Garden Events Center here, and included world renowned speakers such as Lauren Wolfe, award winning journalist and director of Women Under Siege (WUS), Yassar Kanawati, M.D., psychosocial clinic for Syrian Refugees in Jordan; Israel Liberzon, M.D., director of Post Tramatic Stress Disorder Clinic, University of Michigan and Abdulghani Sankari, M.D., Vice President of SAMS National.
Wolfe provided insight about the current sexual violence occurring in Syria. According to WUS, the vast majority of sexual violence attacks against women is rape, but there are other types of sexual violence and rape threats being carried out in the crisis.
According to Wolfe, there are patterns of sexual abuse occuring that have been confirmed with other international human rights organizations.
These patterns include the rape of women at checkpoints; the violation of women who are brought to jails to be raped in front of their husbands and the rape of the male detainees themselves.
Findings on SAMS recent study in the camps of Turkey, and its national mental health programs were discussed as well.
There was a study done by Kings College of London in collaboration with SAMS to determine the levels of psychological stress in South Eastern Turkey as a result of the refugees experiences in Syria as well as living in the refugee camps.
According to Safa Sankari, the president of the SAMS Michigan chapter, 100 percent of the parents responded that their children have changed and do not play like they used to, and 82 percent of the parents reported that their children were more disobedient compared to before the crisis.
High levels of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder were evident by the study. The majority of the refugees are interested in participating in a mental health program according to Sankari.
She says children’s trauma is the most severe because they are affected by losing family members, not having a safe place to live, and no sense of ‘normalcy’ in their lives.
“Men are also traumatized by not being able to care for their families, with no income and not being able to provide safety to their families,” Sankari said.
The SAMS Psychosocial Clinic in Jordan provides therapy sessions and also gives humanitarian support in the form of food, clothing, and housing assistance, to help ease the burden on these families.
The Syrian crisis began as part of the popular Arab Spring uprisings that first spread across countries in the Arab World in 2011 and resulted in the toppling of regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.
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