Note from Congo Watch Editor: Please stop and watch this short powerful BBC film about Ugandan war survivors being partnered with comfort dogs.
I have spent a lifetime seeking and promoting practical ways to help people suffering poverty, homelessness and trauma. More here below. Here is the film.
Ugandan war survivors partnered with therapy dogs
'If it wasn't for him, I'd be dead'
A scheme in Uganda partner dogs with war survivors to help them overcome trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Filda was abducted as a child and forced into the LRA rebel army in Uganda, where she witnessed terrible atrocities.
As part of a scheme called The Comfort Dog Project, Filda has been partnered with a dog who was abandoned as a puppy.
The two are now helping each other heal, along with many others like them.
Uganda’s Comfort Dog Project
- The Comfort Dog Project, an NGO, helps transform the region's stray and unwanted dogs into healing therapy animals for former child soldiers and survivors of war struggling with PTSD, trauma and depression
- A dog that has suffered should be able to help someone who has gone through trauma
- Dogs can help people rehabilitate their psychological condition
- So that they have the company, gain confidence and also overcome depression
- Francis, the founder of the project trained as a psychologist and set up The Comfort Dog Project in 2015 to help people recover from mental health conditions
- During the 5 month therapy programme the Comfort Dog Guardians learn to train and care for their dogs
- The group also undergoes extensive trauma counselling to help them process their past experiences
- But it is still a challenge for the project to gain acceptance
- In Northern Uganda people use dogs for hunting, guarding homes and also they look at dogs as useless
- Even though Uganda's Ministry of Health estimates about 70% of people in Northern Uganda have been traumatically affected by the war there's still stigma around mental health services
- People think the moment you go to mental health you are already mentally disorientated, you cannot be helped
- But attitudes in the community are starting to change, as part of her recovery Filda is with veterinary outreach and educates people on dog training, animal rights and welfare
To visit the above BBC film click here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-49409125/ugandan-war-survivors-partnered-with-therapy-dogs
Note from Congo Watch Editor: In addition to being a lifelong anti-poverty campaigner, I have spent the past 20 years researching cannabinoid therapy to help people, particularly peacekeepers, military personnel, former child soldiers and other survivors of war struggling with PTSD, trauma and depression.
Certain cannabinoids could help people with PTSD. Better still, such a therapy could be partnered with comfort dogs. If anyone reading this can think of the best ways I could help Sudanese, Ugandan and Congolese people with PTSD to be partnered with a therapy dog please contact me at ingridj.jones@btinternet.com. Thanks.
THE COMFORT DOG PROJECT
Give a War Trauma Survivor a Comfort Dog
$500 sponsors a dog placement
$25 sponsors a weekly training class for the Comfort Dog Project
COMFORT DOG
Dogs have a profound effect on our ability to heal from emotional trauma. The Comfort Dog Project pairs formerly homeless/neglected dogs with war survivors suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Psycho-social counseling is coupled with dog companionship and training to create a supportive bond. For $500, you can help to rehabilitate a dog, place that dog with a war survivor, and enable them to go through our 5 month training program to receive certification as a Comfort Dog.
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