Asia/Asia Pacific

Southeast Asia

Indonesia

The first Capacitar training in Indonesia, a large and diverse archipelago with one of the world's largest populations, was in response to the needs of people working in a variety of conflict areas in the country. In May 2002, Christians and Muslims from these areas were invited to a training in Jakarta. The goal was to share practices effective in the healing and transformation of the effects of trauma. The Christian-Muslim teams then returned to their respective areas where they work with the thousands of refugees and survivors of the violence that plagues their regions. A follow-up training for this group was done in Manado, North Sulawesi in January 2003.

In response to requests from these participants, Capacitar began a national Training of Trainers in September 2003. The first of the four seminars was held in Ambon in the Maluku Islands. Eighteen Christians, Muslims and Hindu's from Jakarta, Bali, Ambon, and Pozo participated. The second in the National Training of Trainers series was held in Bali in early 2004.

In the aftermath of the tsunami and earthquake, Capacitar will offer Trauma Healing trainings in the region. In 2006 Capacitar is partnering with grassroots groups and aid organizations in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, offering workshops and Trauma Healing programs to train grassroots leaders and multipliers.  The Trauma Healing Manual has been translated and is available in Bahasa Indonesian.

In October 2006, Joan Condon and Nina Jusuf facilitated a two-day intensive trauma healing workshop for thirty-three people from Java, Pekanbaru, Aceh, Ambon, Sulawesi, Bali and Kupang. This training was partially funded by the Institute for Interfaith Dialogue in Indonesia and included Muslims, Catholics, Protestants and Hindis.

Workshop participants plan to share what they learned with people traumatized by political, religious and domestic violence and with survivors of the tsunami in Aceh and the May 2006 earthquake in Yogyakarta.

A three-day intensive Training of Trainers Workshop followed. Six of the 12 participants attended the first two sessions of the Training of Trainers in 2003 and 2004. They have been using Capacitar practices to promote social change in their work with children in orphanages, children’s centers and schools, with women working for peace, with people working to promote interfaith dialogue, with people with HIV/AIDS, and with survivors of the tsunami and of the bombings in Bali and Jakarta. Joan and Nina plan to return to Indonesia to continue the Training of Trainers in 2007.
(See photos of this workshop.)

East Timor

Workshop with orphan children, East Timor

Workshop with orphan children, East Timor

In August 1999, the people of East Timor, a small island northwest of Australia, voted for independence from Indonesia. Violence erupted. More than 2000 people were killed, about 80,000 fled to West Timor and nearly 80% of the capital, Dili, was destroyed.

As the people began to rebuild, Capacitar was invited to begin a program in 2001. The initial focus was on empowering people to heal not only from the traumatic events of 1999 but also the violence of the previous 25 years of Indonesian rule and to build the inner capacity for reconciliation. In 2001 and 2002, workshops were offered in Dili and other areas of the country in collaboration with PAS Clinic under the leadership of María Días. In May 2002, the focus of our work expanded to include children, the future of the newly independent country.

In August 2003, the first in the series of four Trauma Healing and Transformation Trainings of Trainers took place near the capital in collaboration with the NGO Timor Aid and PAS Clinic. Thirty grassroots leaders, health workers, teachers and religious took part.

Tai Chi in Metanaro, East Timor

The second in this series took place in January 2004. During this same trip, the program was expanded with the first session of the Training of Trainers held in Baucau to serve the eastern part of East Timor.

Between these trainings participants share the practices they learn with others in their families and communities with support from the Timor Aid Capacitar team and Clinica PAS. Every patient who comes to the PAS Clinic learns a Capacitar practice. The staff also uses Capacitar practices with 60-70 children one afternoon a week in the Becora district of Dili, where the clinic is located, and with 100 children one afternoon a week in Metanaro, a seaside community outside of Dili.  Capacitar team trainings continued in 2006. 

The October 2006, Training of Trainers workshop came at a difficult time for people in East Timor. An estimated 60,000 people were still living in refugee camps in the capital, Dili, where they fled when political violence struck in April and May. Another estimated 40 thousand were living as refugees in their home districts afraid to return to the capital, because they feared another outbreak of violence. (See photos of this workshop.)

Despite this, 23 people risked the journey from their home districts through Dili to participate in the six-day Training of Trainers facilitated by Capacitar trainers Joan Condon and Nina Jusuf. Timor Aid, an East Timorese NGO, sponsored the workshops.  The majority of trainees were either educators or others working with youth, as Timor Aid recognizes the importance of breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma.

Workshop in Dare, East Timor

Workshop in Dare, East Timor

The group was enthusiastic and committed. Most had already completed the first module in the training series and had shared some Capacitar practices with family, friends, students and colleagues. Each participant developed a plan for the next months. The basic Capacitar Manual is available in Tetum, the language of East Timor.

Sri Lanka

During a needs assessment visit in July 2005, the first Capacitar workshops were offered to hundreds of participants in Jaffna, Tamil Eealam, Colombo, Galle and Baticoloa in response to people affected by the tsunami and the twenty years of conflict.  Because of the overwhelming interest in the Capacitar program, indepth trainings will be offered in 2006-2007 to groups in different parts of the country, coordinated by Capacitar Ireland.  The Capacitar Trauma Healing Manual is being translated into Tamil and Sinhala.  For information on the workshops contact Aiveen Mullally: aiveen@online.ie.

Papua New Guinea

Capacitar worked in parts of Papua New Guinea in 2001, a country deeply affected by natural disasters and political and domestic violence. Our work focused on wellness, transformation of trauma and violence prevention.