COUNSELLING INTERVENTION FOR BUDO COMMUNITY
The gruesome massacre by arson of 20 kids with the modal age of 10years in this century at Budo Junior School in Uganda on the 14th April 2008 is unbelievable. Everybody really should condemn this brutality and be in solidarity with the most affected kin of the deceased. It is only these young angels who will enlighten our mind to accept what they went by way of. My prayer is that they bring quick and soothing intervention to the relations they separated from.
Lately one high ranking personality in government stated over 1 FM radio that he did not want to talk about the Budo massacre for fear of refreshing wounds, agony of all those who are mourning the beloved young children.
There could be countless other people who may really feel tempted to keep mum for the identical reason. I ought to tell you that whether we maintain silent or continue to talk about the Budo massacre it is not yet over. We need to only brace ourselves to tackle what is yet to come. This brief reflection is an attempt to graciously buttress for the eventuality in connection with the Budo incident.
The demise of these young angels created me contemplate on two things that very usually are not given their preeminence at a moment of loss. The Budo massacre denotes these two problems: the loss of life and loss of persons/affinity. The majority of us are mourning these two aspects.
Drastically it is the children who suffered both aspects, namely, the loss of life and the separation from their beloved ones. The rest of us suffered severed affinity.
The loss of life came once and for all. It is only the perished young children who knew and who skilled what it indicates to shed life. Nevertheless death will in no way persist on them any more. Death has observed its end with the demise of these kids.
In ending someone’s life like it happened at Budo, there must be an exchange of some sort. The children lost their life to the murderers and unconsciously in exchange the kids had been handed a banner written on “NATURAL JUSTICE.” It is this banner that they are now flying in their new abode which is timeless and with out space. It is this banner that ought to take its due course. They are not going to avenge their death because this is characteristic of human endeavour. But their new acquired responsibility is to allow those who massacred them to have the courage to meet the promptings of natural justice.
If loss of life and affinities is sweet or bitter the murderers need to embrace themselves to taste this recipe. Considering that in the children’s new abode, time and space is immaterial, natural justice visiting those who organized, participated and carried out the massacre will strike at its own convenience. It can either take location inside our time or outside it meaning that the murderers or their dear ones at any moment of human existence will not escape the full weight with interest. This is the most absurd and incomprehensible full weight of natural justice.
Those of us who would feel the temptation to avenge the lives of the dear young children cannot do it to the satisfaction of those who are now open to all reality, time and space. The children are now exposed to the full reality of the origin, planning, execution and the aftermath of that sinister massacre for which we mortals it is just a matter of speculation. So at the proper time natural justice will absolutely catch up. The only favour the children could do for us is to witness in our lifetime the execution of natural justice. Might be we might ask this from them.
The second reality of the massacre is that parents, relatives, and significant other people lost persons or affinities that existed with the kids. We by no means lost life as the children did. We are still alive. We looked at loss of life from an angle and from a distance simply because we in no way skilled it ourselves. The discomfort and bitterness of losing one’s life we cannot describe it because we have not gone through it. Death is still with us and it is tormenting us each and every moment of life, in contrast to the perished kids who can no longer be tormented by death.
Because we are still alive and at the same time we lost our affinities that is where the agony lies. We lost our children, sisters, relatives, buddies, schoolmates, classmates and so on. This is a scenario we are to live with which by all means has compromised our mental wellness with consequences of trauma, depression, separation anxiety disorder, attention deficit, panic, obsessive-compulsive disorders, phobias and posttraumatic anxiety.
It is also really likely for the pupil community and specially for the survivors to expertise reactive behaviour to the trauma reminders that can result into reckless behaviour or extreme avoidant behaviours that are detrimental to their development as human beings. Of course each one will continue with life but the level of mental health functioning and impairment will depend on individual resiliency and intervention. So it is not however over for us. We want a lot of intervention to cope with this new sad encounter.
Amongst the techniques to cope is the require to see justice expeditiously completed according to our human standards. The state machinery has an essential component to play or else it aggravates the mental health functioning of the affected kith and kin. It ought to be observed to be on the side of the affected relations. Any interpretation of apparent diversion from the anxiety-prone relations will perpetuate mental well being illness with dire consequences.
There are evidence -based practices that can be sought to assist cope with this debilitating situation. These contain: psychosocial, medication, counseling/psychotherapy and preventive intervention.
Among the psychosocial, the parents, relatives, all various community agencies, associations, be at village level, church and so on, need to come in and give the necessary organization and presence to the afflicted. They can come in to help face this phenomenon. They really should not create the impression that they are helping 1 to forget the agony or sweep everything under carpet but rather to help in accepting the reality of separation.
The parents of the survivors really should watch quite closely their youngsters who would exhibit fright for no apparent reason. They may well be developing recurrent, or re-experiencing of the event, by means of flashbacks, nightmares or images. They might be avoiding any stimuli at house, which remind them of the event, e.g., being in the house, fire or certain time when the incident happened. Some may well show increased signs of arousal, e.g., lack of sleep or simply irritated, change in cognitive behaviours, avoidance or any other signs.
Consultations with mental wellness workers e.g a counselor, psychologists, psychiatrists is highly suggested for both parents and youngsters. These can be extremely instrumental in the healing procedure.
Prayer intervention is another efficacious therapy for those who hold a powerful reality of connectivity between the earthly and the supernatural intervention in life.
The children need to be talked to via our family intervention systems or even seek skilled help. The parents need to not insist on where the child could continue with schooling. They really should seriously talk about it prior to the new term starts. In case the child is very particular and concerned with trauma reminders it is likely that this child may take long to settle where those reminders are going to be part and parcel of the everyday environment.
Norman Nsereko
Counselling Pyschologist