Education and Wellness Center in Tenedba Camp in Sudan 

HPN4Tigray’s Work and Field team has been busy working on the Education and Wellness Center in Sudan. They have been collaborating with HPN4Tigray’s Mental Health & Wellness team, as the Wellness Center is approaching its completion. The Education and Wellness Center will be a safe space for the Tigrayan youth who have lost everything at a crucial time in their development. The Mental Health team is planning a robust mental health program to support the most vulnerable. Included will be telehealth services and play-therapy consisting of arts and crafts, music, and sports. 

Footwear in Sudan organized by the Work & Field team

In response to needs on the ground in Sudan, which include prevention of insect and snake bites, HPN4Tigray’s Work and Field team is organizing footwear to be sent to Sudan. Having shoes will protect refugees from snake bites and provide some comfort after having to leave all their belongings to make the journey to Sudan. If you’re interested in supporting us in these efforts, please consider making a donation here.

A note from HPN4Tigray’s Mental Health & Wellness team on the program in the planning stages for the Wellness Center:

Child and Adult Psychoeducation Support Curricula

Children exposed to traumatic events i.e., war are more likely to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and behavioral problems. Psychoeducation through play helps children understand their emotions, provides them with ways they can resolve inner conflict, and learn self-control and self-respect. 

The training will help decrease emotional distress, reinforce one’s resilience, connection to community, and help with self-regulation, providing positive coping skills and ways to mitigate negative ones. This will be the first step in building resilience and improving emotional/mental wellbeing. The use of psychoeducation through play will hopefully decrease the burden of their trauma. 

This psychoeducation support curriculum will help children and teenagers, who have been exposed to traumatic events due to the genocidal war on Tigray, understand and process what they experienced and witnessed. This curriculum will also help build external and internal resources and build resilience. These sessions will be delivered in a group format and have been divided by age group and sessions and can be conducted in any setting. 

We recommend groups of 6 to 10 children, meeting for about 90 minutes, but these parameters can be adjusted to meet local needs. Groups should be led by facilitators who have been trained (although not licensed). Facilitators, teachers, and parents are encouraged to observe any changes in children. It is also very important to understand that children in this age group can also be strongly affected by their parents’ reaction to traumatic events.

The adult psychoeducational curriculum was created by trauma informed therapist, Brent Diaz, MSW for HPN4Tigray to help the people of Tigray with the atrocities that have faced as a result of the ongoing war. It was devised for community/religious leaders to facilitate adult psychoeducation consisting of six weekly sessions in a small group setting (up to 10) to teach coping skills to deal with symptoms of trauma, isolation, insomnia, depression, anxiety, and more. 

The Mental Health team would also like to thank the non-profit Horn of Africa for sending HPN4Tigray’s first shipment of more than 40 play toys f(or the psychoeducation play therapy program) and laptop computers for the Wellness Center in Sudan:

HPN4Tigray Booth @
National Protest in D.C. – Nov. 4-7th

If you are attending the 4-Day National Protest in Washington D.C. from November 4–7th, be sure to stop by HPN4Tigray’s wellness booth on November 4th. There will be water, blood pressure checks, and face masks to ensure our community stays safe while advocating for Tigray.

Here’s a guidebook for the national protest from @TegaruEvents. We hope to see you there!

Famine in Tigray 

By Dr. Semhal 

The crisis unfolding in Tigray bears all marks of genocide.  There have been numerous accounts of independently verified massacres, extrajudicial killings, weaponized hunger, widespread use of sexual and gender-based violence as a weapon of war, and systematic and deliberate destruction of public health infrastructures and cultural heritage sites.

The Ethiopian government has been deliberately blocking humanitarian corridors into Tigray, preventing aid agencies from supplying Tigray with life-saving medications, food relief, and other vital necessities. These access restrictions have led to an alarming deterioration of public health conditions in Tigray. The heightened blockade the Ethiopian government put in place on June 27, 2021, continues to hinder the urgently needed relief assistance, resulting in catastrophic hunger levels and hence a man-made famine. 70% of the population is experiencing high levels of food insecurity. Children in Tigray are starving to death daily, as hospitals do not have the means to treat them. This man-made famine continues to claim the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians every day. Recent estimates from aid agencies indicate that a minimum of 425 and a conservative maximum of 1201 hunger deaths are occurring every day. That is, on average, one person dying of starvation every two minutes.

Based on a recent UN analysis, more than 90 percent of the population in Tigray needs food aid, with an estimated 400,000 people living in “famine-like conditions.” USAID places this same figure closer to 900,000 people.  The UN estimates that roughly 100 trucks of aid per day are needed to mitigate the devastating outcomes of famine in Tigray.

According to a recent UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) report on Oct 14, 2021:

• Out of 105,000 children under-five years of age screened for acute malnutrition between Oct 5 and 11, 2021, 2.3% were diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition;
• The percentage of malnutrition among pregnant and lactating mothers continues to rise at 63%;
• Rates of acute malnutrition are comparable to levels seen at the onset of the 2011 Somalia famine that claimed more than 250,000 lives;
• An estimated 200,000 children in Tigray have gone without critical vaccination required to prevent polio and measles outbreaks.

With over 90% of all the healthcare infrastructure in Tigray stripped of most basic medications, partially-functioning hospitals are filled with desperate mothers and children crying tears of agony in silence.

BUT IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO ACT! 

NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT and mitigate the unfolding crisis, possibly the worst famine in the 21st century. This is a man-made famine that can be remedied by governments declaring the Famine in Tigray a public health emergency and imposing all necessary sanctions and embargoes against the Ethiopian government to allow humanitarian corridor.

About the Author:
Dr. Semhal is a healthcare professional and a mixed method researcher specializing in pediatrics Spinal Deformities and Postural Disorders. 

Why did you join HPN4Tigray?
I joined HPN4TIGRAY because it gave me purpose at my lowest point and led me to a healing path I didn’t foresee. 

What gives you hope about the future of Tigray?
It’s all about the resilience for me. Tigray is the literal embodiment of resilient people and that gives me so much hope.