Women in Crisis in Tigray, Ethiopia

Human Interest story

Atsede* is 50 years old woman from North west Tigray. She was born and grows up with her family at a village around sheraro. She had peace full life with her family and they had good farmland and many domestic animals. When the conflict started armed forces captured their place and she was hidden at cave until the situation became calm and then returned to her home. After few month’s her husband became sick and died. At the 2nd round of the conflict armed forces captured their place and she went to the cave again. The armed forces took her all domestic animals and house hold materials. Her mother was sick and at home at that time and she decided to see her. At her journey she saw many corps eaten by dogs. She was depressed and sad but she continued her journey and reached around her home. She saw her mother’s corpse at the farm land. The body of her mother’s corpse was divided in to 3 parts. She couldn’t control herself and she failed dawn to the ground but after few hours she became calm down and buried her mother’s corpse around her home. Unfortunately, five armed forces came and asked her questions and they insulted her. Then they raped her turn by turn and left her. At that evening a man came and carried her at his back and took her to health center. She got emergency medications and stayed at one IDP (Internal displaced person) center. But due to these all things she developed severe post-traumatic stress disorder, epilepsy, isolation, nightmare, helplessness and hopelessness. She went to different holly water and traditional medicine but she couldn’t heal. Then she went to suhul hospital and one stop center referred her to Abraham’s oasis safe house for women project for better service and psycho social support. 

When she joined to the safe house, she was depressed, speaks alone and had sleeping problem and night mare. She received Psychological First Aid and individual counseling session. This helped her to relax and to spend time with her friends and also to use different coping mechanisms to heal from the traumatic experiences. She got medical service and continued her psychiatry follow up. She began to make different crafts like coffee mate, crochet, and coloring. She also received Psycho social support and different life skill trainings. She began to listen music, dance and play games like card and ‘’gebeta’’. In addition to this she got business skill training that will help her to start her own small business and parenting skill training that helps her to care her children properly. Due to these services she became calm down and has good improvements in her emotions but she needs continuous follow up.