By Abayomi Elias
Mrs Atinuke Odukoya
In its effort to assist Child Protection Responders deal with the traumatic experience and stress often encountered in the cause of helping a survivor get justice, Center For Women’s Health and Education CEWHIN organized a 2 day training exercise to build their capacities on self help.
Newsconnect reports that the Executive Director of CEWHIN Mrs Atinuke Odukoya who facilitated the training session said there is a lot of trauma taking on by child protection network responders, hence it is important for them to develop a self help plan.
In an interview with Newsconnect correspondent at the event, she said;
”Often times, they don’t know how to wind down to take care of their own health, so a lot of people are melting down, a lot of emotional mental health trauma going on.
”So this exercise is to help them to begin to institutionalize self care in what they are doing and in their work.
”What i would like them to take home is that focusing on themselves is not selfish. When you are healthy, when you have taking care of yourself, that way, you will not break down.
”You are actually able to help more survivors when you are healthy than when you are fallen ill because you have taking on a lot of trauma upon yourself.
”It is important that employers, particularly of first responders begin to think of selfcare for their staffs”. She said
A former coordinator of Child Protection Network Mrs Ngozi Okoro who lost her husband in the cause of helping survivors get justice said the training is a very good one for them.
”I have benefitted from this training because we go through trauma, we go through a lot of stress in this work. I was a coordinator for 11 years.
”When we started, it was at the state level. When there is an abuse in Badagry, you run to Badagry. When there is abuse in Epe, you will run to Epe. When there is abuse in Ikorodu, you will run to Ikorodu.
“The trauma that comes with the kind of case that you hear affects, that is why I like this training because it is trying to bring me back to myself.
“I have gone through a lot in doing this child protection work without remembering myself, without remembering the care.
”Your phone is on in the midnight when they call you and all that. If i put it off and they call on behalf of a child that has been abuse, and they don’t get me, I feel somehow. In the process i lost my husband.
”The imagination of what goes in the mind of a child, or cases we have handled in itself bring trauma.
“I thank Cewhin for bringing on this training. It is good for us to unwind.
When you are doing the artistic thing, you are not thinking of any other thing, you are concentrating, you are focused.
”It is not that it is going to throw away all the troubles, we are asked to take care of ourselves and it is now left for us.
“For me it is when you are alive that you can do anything or help another person. Whatever we do, we should put ourselves into consideration. My message to people in our field is for us to always love ourselves, take care of ourselves, no matter what we do”. She said