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Katharina Ley

Bread and roses: supporting refugee women in a multicultural group

Katharina Ley

This ¢eld report describes the support and asylum-seekers and refugees within a com- reconciliation work in a weekly multicultural and pulsorycontext. Every weeksixtotenwomen multilingual therapeutic group of African refugee attend the meeting.The group attendance is women in a shelter inJohannesburg, South Africa. irregular because of the women’s existing The problems of the participants, the therapeutic obligations: caring for the children, organis- approach (which includes: team building exercises, ingessentialdocuments and looking for food, guided imaginations, story telling, drawing, model- moneyandawaytoearnalivingafterthe¢rst ling and discussion) as well as the impact on the six to ten months in the shelter. participants, are all discussed. It is an ongoing project balanced on a knife- edge; the women describe and live out a Keywords: reconciliation, support suspended life between the danger from which they £ed and the precarious safety of a life in exile. They express both their The support group ¢nancial and food related needs as well as The ‘new’ South Africa opened its borders their needs of moral and psychological after 1994 to refugees from all over Africa. support. They continue to have all kind of Thousands of refugees from the war torn experiencesthatcontinuetotraumatisethem countries such as: Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, daily in exile (criminality, lack of money, CongoandSudanenteredSouthAfricato¢nd etc.) along with the stressful experience of a safe place of exile.This has placed increased loss (of the home country, of their home, burdens within the new society that has work, and of family members) and a long- problems such as extremely high unemploy- term sense of transience. Living peacefully ment amongst their indigenous black people. together in the shelter and having to share Moreover, tensions and in-¢ghting between food and space is not an easy task. the refugee communities themselves, and There are problems of language and culture. between South Africans and refugees have We have to struggle with several languages increased these already existing tensions. in the group (English, French, Swahili, Por- Working with refugee communities myself tuguese, Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, Lingala) and my co-worker, a Swiss psychotherapist with help of a Burundian male interpreter. and a Philippine social worker, felt the low The women feel comfortable and safe with morale of the women so intensely that we him. He is the only male and his presence started running a weekly psychological and a¡ects the group in a supportive way. morale support group in a women’s refugee Our work with the group focused on 1) the shelter1. The group is open to all women practical requests made by the women to resident in the shelters coming from: Angola, get access to education, health care, docu- Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Sudan as ments, a job (income) and a place to live

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Bread and roses: supporting refugee women in a multicultural group Intervention 2006, Volume 0, Number 0, Page 1 -6

after the ¢rst year in the shelter, and 2) self- end (90 minutes), keeping the older, non expression, communication, team-building breast-fed children out of the room, announ- and reconciliation work2. cing they are leaving the shelter to say good-bye, and to be present to welcome the The problems of the newcomers). We have been unable to keep participants these boundaries because the group is Thecore experiencesoftraumaaredisempo- inherently made-up of this ever-changing werment and disconnection from others group. It is our challenge to be open and (Herman, J.L., 2001).Working with refugee £exible, always keeping in mindthat the goal women these experiences were re£ected in of the group is providing moral support in many aspects in the group work.The discus- a situation of ongoing stress and trauma for sions are often focused on us as facilitators the refugee women (daily life problems, and the women rarely interacted among health problems, burglaries in the Shelter, themselves. They continue to live out their etc.). disempowerment and the disconnection from each other.They present themselves as Our therapeutic approach passive, lost, tired, anxious and depressed, We emphasise to the women that the group and are su¡ering from a lack of concentra- belongs to them- and not to us - andthat they tion. As trauma therapists we tell them that have to take the responsibility of expressing these are common and understandable reac- their needs. Giventhe instabilityof the group tions to the experienced events, andto a hard (in terms of attendance and in terms of the daily life as refugee. changes in the shelter where there is a per- Most of the women appear lost in a nostalgic manent £uctuation) we as facilitators have viewof the past, whichtheydescribe as atime to take more responsibility then initially in which everything was okay and intact. envisioned keeping the group active and They present themselves as lost in a shapeless alive. We have to remind the participants at present without any other possible future each meeting what happened during the otherthangoingbacktotheirhomecountries last, and therefore to assist them in making as soon as possible. This is often, in reality, suggestions for the following meeting. virtually impossible because they come from Every three or four months, we also have countries that are still at war. to ask them if they really want to continue Their identity crisis is mirrored in the ever- with the group.Yet, despite the lethargy and changing make-up of the group.The women passivity of the women in the group, they are always late in attending the group meet- always insist that we continue. As a result of ings. During meetings the door never the loss of familiar cultural backing, their remains closed, some are coming, others ability to integrate new experiences is see- leaving, looking after the children, and often mingly reduced (van der Veer, 1991). This is the children comingand going as well. Every why they are often not able to participate week we have a di¡erent group because more actively in the group. the women have a lot of other obligations. Con£icts in the shelter. Forus as therapists, it is a Women leave the shelter and the group, and continuous struggle to handle the manifest then others join. We have continually and latent squabbles and ¢ghts among the attempted to create boundaries (punctual women; about food, which is scarce in the beginning, remaining in the group until the shelter, and about their position and work

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Katharina Ley

sharinginthe sheltergroup.Wehavetotalkto discussthepartstheyhave drawnthemselves: them about very material needs (getting houses, £owers, trees, spatial objects, etc. more food) without the possibility of giving During the construction of a communal this material help.Wemust show them, again garden or village we ask them to contribute and again, the possibilities of moral and goods to be used by all, e.g. an irrigation psychological support work. Often, one or system, roads, and community buildings. more of the women approach us after meet- We encourage the women to interact and to ings asking us to provide them with money share the process with the group each time for food, transport, or the needs of their we do this exercise. Given the necessity of children. Or, for example, at each meeting interpretation, these interactions often pro- we arrive with a bag of biscuits. Given the ceed very slowly, and sometimes laboriously. di¡erent possibilities of eating them, such as Nonetheless, the women like to do these com- during the group session or taking them to munal tasks and we all feel a certain group their rooms to eat later in the evening cohesion as a result of such a meeting, at least (e.g. during Ramadan) we have observed that while the meeting is happening. However, the women even have disagreements over by the next week we have a di¡erent group this. These disagreements, which extend to again and have to start at the beginning to struggling for daily food and, as mentioned build a group. This is easier during the time previously, for positions in the group, never periods we have a stable core of 2-3 women occur during the meetings, but after. So then in the group. The ability to do something we discuss the issue of sharing for one or and no longer feeling helpless is a very two weeks afterwards when we have been important experience for these women who informed of such disputes by either women overwhelmingly experience powerlessness in the group, or by the shelter management. andhelplessness.Itisverysatisfyingforthem. Despite our intention to discuss such pro- We also try to give encourage other possi- blems immediately, we rarely reach this bilities, for example assisting them in com- objective. Most of the women are scared to forting themselves within an inner world of bring up problems as they occur and prefer positive images. After guiding them through to gossip aroundthe issues after the meetings. relaxation exercises we o¡er guided visions As therapists, we feel often helpless and about an inner garden, a safe inner place, a exhausted by the demands of the women to tree, or a £ower (Reddemann, 2001). Every resolve their problems around the scarcity woman creates her own inner picture. After of food.‘Scarce food’ can also be metaphor these visualisations, or day dreams, we invite to describe their basic emotional needs. the women to tell us about their experiences Group-building. We o¡er team-building exer- and to share their inner pictures with the cisesasanantidotetothesquabblingamongst group. Some women tell us that they have the women in the shelter. In one exercise, the opportunity to see and feel a safe inner the women have to form four squares from place, aninnergarden, torestagoodmoment an amount of scrap paper and discuss the in this place, and to enjoy rest and peace. process and their feelings after accomplish- Others can not enjoy this opportunity to ing the task. Or, we put a large piece of paper dream while the terrible circumstances they on the table and ask them together to draw have to live in, and the amount of problems a village, the shelter, a garden, or another they have to resolve, still exist. Some prefer common space.Werequest theycontinuously a Christian or Muslim prayer as a pathway

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to inner peace, to build their strength, and to to celebrate one of the rare good moments move on. in their di⁄cult life - our group sessions. We also use storytelling to promote group- Counter-transference. As therapists, we have building. Storytelling in a group provides to deal with strong counter-transference the group participants with opportunities to (limbo, loss, depression, low energy levels, bond with others who have had similar coming and going during the sessions). experiences, and to share these experiences. Trauma is contagious and in the role of wit- We work in an intuitive way and look for ness we are at times overwhelmed (Herman, stories that we think would be close to the J.L., 2001). Our mutual debrie¢ng after the world of these women. Sometimes we begin group meetings is a highly important work to tell a story and then ask the women to instrument. complete it. We use stories of the leopard The e¡ect of living in limbo and the daily and the tortoise, of the lion and the rabbit, realities of refugee life are replayed in the mostly African stories about a problem to therapy group through absences, disappear- solvebetweenaphysicallystrongandaphysi- ances, and unresolved conclusions. Rarely cally weak, but cunning animal. Most of the do we get the chance to say goodbye to a women identify with the cunning animal woman who leaves the shelter. It remains ¢ghting to save his/her life. After completing unclear to what extent the women’s practical such a story, they often exchange their own needs, such as looking for ajob andchildcare, experiences of solving their own survival, in£uencetheirattendanceinthegroup. Some during £ight, and now as a refugee. members may have seen joining the group Reconciliation work. Reconciliation in a as a means to receive further practical help, country like South Africa is an essential and having received it or not, saw no further survival tool to deal with the heritage of the reason to stay in the group (Callaghan, K., past. The pertinent question is how to move 1998). In such situations it is di⁄cult to give towards who-and-what-you-can-become. the group a sense of continuity and value. For refugees, it is a working through victim- Mutual in£uence. In the group we have hood status to gain another identity as a observed a ‘fellow traveller’ phenomenon. refugee. Reconciliation work is based on Every meeting begins with an introductory dialogue, mutual acceptance, trust, and the session during which each woman speaks acceptance of diversity. In our group work about how she feels that day and what we have abroad understanding of reconcilia- happened during the week. Frequently the tion. Dealing with the trauma is already a ¢rst statement given sets the tone, and the part of this work to reconcile what happened women who come after her will follow in a and continues to happen. Eventually, we similar tone. So the statements mostly re£ect learned that women in their life situation, a group feeling.We have asked ourselves if it which contains ongoing distress, need the is a kind of shyness that also re£ects the building of resources (speaking together pattern of their former life, the £ight and about daily problems, listening, drawing, the actual struggle in exile? Additionally, dreaming and modelling their situations) to could it be an uneasiness to talk about ¢nd comfort etc. One day the women asked personal matters with someone outside of if they could rename the group; not ‘trauma the family (van der Veer, G., 1991). It has group’ ^ but ‘furaha’, which means joy in happened that individual women get known Swahili.Inthiswaytheyexpressedtheir need inthe shelter forbeing responsible for certain

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Katharina Ley

tasks (kitchen duties, sewing group, child- celebrating of their origins in a new, not care, etc.) and that subsequently rumours of chosen, group where the women feel for a witchcraftcomeup.Women intheshelterthat short moment that they belong together in are in relative positions of power a¡ect the the here and now of their refugee limbo. It group dynamics in a way that the other is the kind of ‘breakthrough’we strive for. women (not being in special positions) boost Following a discussion about resilience and themselves (alleviating their jealousy) with how they ¢nd courage, each woman formed rumours of witchcraft. It seems that a discus- in clay a symbol of their capacity to over- sion about this issue can bring some relief. come: a heart (twice), a casserole, a rabbit, Flexibility. We had to be £exible and open to a tree, a horseshoe, a star and a sun. They the needs of the women. One day we had to insisted on putting the symbols together into do a debrie¢ng after a burglary took place a group picture of love, life and hope. They in the shelter the night before, another day a are stronger in the non-verbal expression child died in a car accident.The women told than in words given the frequently poor us afterwards that they experienced the education of the majority of the group debrie¢ngs as very helpful because they members. Putting the drawings or clay could share their fears and anxieties. The ¢gures together and arranging them on the process demands people from outside to help table in the group room becomes an exciting facilitatethisprocess. Inthisway,theiractual experience of creativity and diversity. In this life problems demand our capacity to adjust sense, healing is also a discovery of inner every meeting to the changing needs of the wisdom. It happens when we come to the women, andtomaintainthetransitionalposi- unexplored territory of imagination and tion necessary to address psychodynamic body, and take a step into the unknown of a and very practical issues. creative act, a clay ¢gure, a drawing. These are the moments when we all experience the The impact on the participants group as being a gift to all of us and where Roses.Weusetheexpression‘Roses’to describe we ¢nd a way to answer the questions of loss, events that signify an inner opening of the and individual and cultural bereavement. womentowardsreconciliation. Asunpredict- Reconciliation. We notice that the members of able as we experience the attendance at a this multicultural group have a strong inter- group session, and the openness and atmos- est in learningabouttheculturalbackground phere of the work, so surprising are the of the therapists: they ask questions about smooth and even happy moments in the lifestyles, education, rituals, feasts, and even group. Often it comes from contributions witchcraft. In away,we aretheir role models. about their home culture, when the women There is a strong feeling among them too speak about how theylived at home, describe about their di¡erent origins, cultures and theircultures,andhowtheycelebratedfeasts. languages intertwined with the conscious- Or, a Christmas party where some women ness about the actual di¡erences.Thewomen told a story from home and another recited are, in fact, di¡erent - culturally, socially her own poem. It happens sometimes when and personally. To honour the di¡erences they speak about their religion and about and the communalities is in fact a form the importance of prayers, when one woman of reconciliation. spontaneously said a prayer for the whole In all of Africa the means for healing are group. In a way, it re£ects the sharing and embedded in the ¢bre of the diverse cultures

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that inhabit the continent. This means that Ley, K. & Garcia M (2003) Psychological and Moral we need a variety of expressive forms in a SupportWork with RefugeeWomen.In:AGENDA, support group like ours; speaking together No. 55, Durban: South Africa. and giving meaning to our lives through plays, art and symbols, creating an inner Reddemann, L. (2001). Imagination als heilsame movement through imagination and facili- Kraft. Stuttgart: Pfei¡er bei Clett-Cotta. tatinglinksbetweentheinternalandexternal worlds. We found that the women have an Van der Veer, G. (1998) Counselling and therapy with impressive potential to symbolise their cul- refugees and victims of trauma (2nd edition,1998) ture, their feelings and their trauma in a Chichester:Wiley. non-verbal manner, in imagination, draw- ings and clay forming. The work we do Woodcock, J. (1997) Group work with Refugees together makes a di¡erence in their lives. So and Asylum Seekers. In:T.Mistry & A.Brown we assume equating the capacity to express (Eds.) Race and Group Work, London: Whiting the practical needs and the imagination & Birch Ltd, 254-278. and to ‘play’ in a broad sense as a capacity for resilience and healing - in the process of 1 This shelter in Johannesburg is part of the ‘making whole’, accepting what happened, refugee project at the Trauma Clinic of the and moving on in a reconciling way. CSVR(Centre of the Study of Violence and Reconciliation), a NGO building capacities References andassistingvictimempowermentandrecon- Callaghan, K. (1998) In limbo. Movement psy- ciliation work through research, courses and chotherapy with refugees and asylum seekers. therapy. In: Dokter, D. (Ed.) Arts Therapists, Refugees, 2 We consider our work to be reconciliation Migrants, Reaching Across, Borders,London, work. We consider trauma work as a begin- Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. ning of reconciliation within their own life reality and with the ongoing trauma. Herman, JL (2001). Trauma and Recovery From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror.London: Katharina Ley, psychoanalyst, group analyst, Pandora. sociologist, works in private practice in Bern, Switzerland. From 2001-2004 she wasattached Ley,K.(2005).Ve rs o« hnungmitdenElternWegezurinne- to theTrauma Clinic of the Centre of the Study ren Freiheit. Dˇsseldorf:Walter bei Patmos. of Violence and Reconciliation, Johannesburg, South Africa. Authors address: Sulgenbach- Ley,K,& Karrer,C. (2004).U« berlebenskˇnstlerinnen strasse15,CH3007 Bern,Switzerland.E-mail: Frauen in Sˇdafrika. eFeF: Bern. [email protected]

Uncited references Ley (2005), Ley and Karrer (2004), Ley and Garcia (2003),VanderVeer(1998),Woodcock (1997).

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