This article presents the results of a research project whose objective was to describe and analyse how people seeking asylum in the Netherlands² make sense f their experience. The broader aim of this study was to provide information that could lead to improved mental health care (Kramer, Bala, Dijk van, & Öry, 2003). This article accordingly ends with suggestions to implement the study’s findings in other countries where refugees face uncertainty.

Key words: asylum seekers, coping, qualitative research, refugees

Although there has been peace in most parts of Uganda since 1986, in Mbarara district in southwest Uganda nobody talks about their war experience; there is one big conspiracy fsilence. According to the people who live there, it is not good to talk, it can be dangerous and can make you ill. This article deals with the question why these people keep silent about their horrifying war experiences. It appears that the community and the social and cultural institutions have been destroyed. People have no public space to share their memories of the war.

This article shows how a psychosocial project initiated by a Western, medical humanitarian organisation can connect with non-Western local traditions. In this case, the traditional folk theatre of the rural areas in Kashmir is used as a medium for psychoeducation.

Keywords: folk theatre, psycho-education, local tradition

Folk Theatre in Kashmir

In this paper, Narrative Theatre is described as a means of strengthening the social fabric in dislocated communities. In the first part, we describe basic theoretical constructs underlying the social foundation of human functioning. The key elements are bonding and bridging as dynamic features of social fabric. This is followed by a brief discussion of the emancipatory roots of Narrative Theatre. In the third part, we give a conceptual framework based on deconstructing problem stories and reconstructing the emancipatory opportunities in the preferred stength-based story.

The war informer Yugoslavia (1991-95) exposed hundreds ofthousands of children and adolescents to very intensive, often multiple traumatic experiences, followed by a chain f chronic and increasing problems in exile. This paper describes the theoretical framework, implementation and evaluation of Youth Clubs, a community-based psychosocial intervention implemented during the war years with the aim of supporting the psychosocial recovery and reintegration ofyoung refugees in Serbia.

Abstract. The psychological well-being of' 114

The ever-growing range of approaches to psychosocial intervention in areas of armed conflict reflects a wide diversity in underlying perspective. Practitioners are faced with questions of effectiveness and appropriateness of interventions. The author presents a conceptual framework formulated by the Pychosocial Working Group that offers a way of understanding psychosocial well being that embraces the breadth of the field..

Mental health programmes in war-stricken areas aim to offer immediate help to those who most need it. Usually, there is no urge to start a systematic registration on demographic data of clients and on characteristics of interventions. Nevertheless, there is a growing necessity to do so. Structured gathering of information can help professionals to obtain insight in the age, sex and number of clients they see, in the usefulness of the interventions they offer on the basis of which they can demonstrate the importance of their work..

Nowadays, the mental health profession is aware of the importance of the social network for the coping and healing processes in persons affected by war. In war-related circumstances the natural social network is impoverished or lost. Volunteers represent a possibility for the enlargement and enrichment of the social network.. They can specially contribute in various ways to the empowerment and well-being f children affected by war and of refugee children. This article describes the activities of volunteers of different provenance and in different war-related situations.

In March 2003 Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) started its weekly radio programme in order to foster psychosocial awareness in the Kashmir valley. This programme is produced by MSF national and expatriate staff, keeping the cultural, social and religious beliefs and ways of the people closely in mind, and thus treading most carefully. Every part of this programme was developed after extensive field research including taking with general people, some key people, interviews with doctors, focus group discussions and so on.

Keywords: psycho-education