IOM has teamed up with the Lebanese University to offer a masters
degree course to professionals currently providing psychosocial
assistance to war-affected communities.

The creation of the course follows an IOM assessment carried out
last year on the short- and mid-term psychosocial needs of Lebanese
displaced people and returnees following the conflict there last
summer. The assessment confirmed psychosocial issues like stress,
depression, anger, angst and instability that need to be attended
to help Lebanese society recover. One recommendation was action to
reinforce the capacity of psychosocial experts in Lebanon.

The course, funded by the Belgian Development Cooperation and
which will last from September 2007-April 2008, will have 25 fully
subsidized participants from Lebanon and from the Middle East
region. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will cover
accommodation, food and transport for 20 students while Lebanon's
Higher Council for Childhood will provide institutional
support.

International experts from different centres of excellence like
the Tavistock Clinic and Essex University in the United Kingdom and
from Italy and Belgium will offer their expertise to the
participants in addition to Lebanese experts from various
well-known institutions and NGOs.

 

At the end of the course, participants will have been helped in
knowing how to identify and conceptualize emotional and mental
threat to an individual caused by displacement, war and migration;
in adopting creative approaches to strengthen the community fabric;
in being able to counsel war-affected individuals and in developing
conflict resolution and mediation skills amongst other things.

IOM has developed a multi-disciplinary approach to trying to
resolve psychosocial issues in Lebanon, with a special focus on the
individual, the family and the community. As well as using more
established tools, IOM is also using other means such as social
theatre, community animation, creative arts, oral history and
narrative counselling in a bid to de-stigmatise emotional problems
related to displacement and war, to help people recover from trauma
and to also strengthen the capacity of national and local actors in
this field.

For further information, please contact:

Rand a Nassar

IOM Lebanon

Tel: + 96 11 752 118

E-mail: "mailto:rnassar@iom.int">rnassar@iom.int