On the personal level, women have endured unimaginable victimization, cruelty, loss and dislocation. Due to the collapse of the civil society, medical and psychological resources for healing are strained and often unavailable. Because the women are refugees, trusted neighbors and family members are not present for healing support. People in the community, equally traumatized and overburdened, are not accessible to share the psychological weight of grief and loss. Additionally, the women find it overwhelming to repeat their stories and especially delicate to reveal the rape and sexual abuse of the war years.
Nightmares are common.
Many participants in the workshops cope by distracting themselves by day, but are haunted each night by the repressed memories. There are goods in the market, but no money for purchases. They live in unfamiliar surroundings with scant belongings. There is little transport and as yet no restored telecommunication. The government cannot provide civil services, decent housing, income-generation projects or job training.