PTSD Training for Trafficked Survivors with Victor Lyons (SessionWise)

In April, Liluye started its Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) training program for its partners with Victor Lyons (from SessionWise) who specializes in PTSD training with the plan to reach, and help de-traumatize, as many trafficked women as possible, but also to train partners who can benefit from the training personally or to pass on the training to colleagues, to de-traumatize as many woman as possible.

So far, we successfully completed our first two, online PTSD training workshops. The first cohort included our partners, WIDC (Nigeria) and AEDVP (Cameroon), and the second cohort included the Sunita Foundation (Nepal) and the Impact & Dialogue Foundation (India). The training included some theoretical overview, training to pass on the methods for other trauma sufferers (or peers), as well as a lot of hands-on practice sessions.

Victor has worked in e-learning for the last 23 years, most notably with ReadingWise International which has trained over 350,000 people worldwide in literacy and other life skills. He is currently training community leaders in Africa and South Asia, in areas where there is no effective mental health infrastructure, to set up effective trauma relief, peer counseling programs. SessionWise is particularly focused on gender-based-violence victims, trafficking survivors, migrants and other disadvantaged communities.

The initial phase plan for SessionWise is to create trauma resolution delivery centers in three towns in West Africa, starting with Ile-Ife (Nigeria), Bamenda (Cameroon) and two in South Asia (Delhi + one other). Another one may be added in Nairobi. They would have two or three paid, full-time employees in each center, depending on the funding received. The employees would train other people to give PTSD sessions in their communities, but they would also give sessions to any traumatized NGO workers, too. Then, when that is successful, the plan is to acquire more funding to scale up the program even more. The target outcome is a quarter of a million traumatized women who would be de-traumatised through the program.

At the moment, there is no charge for this program, but donations of 100€ are appreciated, if the trainee can afford it. The long-term goal is to receive money from donors or grant foundations, so there isn't any charge for the traumatized women.

To read more about Victor's SessionWise program, and app, go here: https://www.sessionwise.org/

To read more about Victor, his background, passion, work and future plan for SessionWise, read all about it on the Liluye blog post here.

Or, to learn more about Victor's other available programs, such as ThinkingWise, TeachingWise, LearningWise, Tara Akshar literacy program, ConfidenceWise, Employability Life Skills, PhonicsWise, and ComprehensionWise, visit the ReadingWise International website here.

Thanks for reading.