In this study, the body of drawings and written wishes chosen from a drawing contest for Palestinian schoolchildren, provided data revealing a world of hopes, wishes and desires of Palestinian teenagers. Irrespective of the measure of regional exposure to the violent conflict, the political situation figures prominently in their wishes. Peace and statehood are dominant themes.

‘Agape’ is a reconciliation project among victims of the armed conflict in Colombia and child-soldiers who, legally, are also victims of the armed conflict. The project was realised fully by volunteers, who are kidnap victims, refugees, students and other members of the Colombian community in Montreal, Canada.

In October 2010, an outbreak of cholera was confirmed in Haiti. The country had not seen cholera for many decades, so it was a ‘new’ disease to the population. The outbreak of cholera also leads to high levels of fear and suspicion due to beliefs and perceptions. This field report presents some of those beliefs and perceptions around the outbreak, in four Haitian communities.

The development of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Guidelines heralded an international achievement by gathering mental health and psychosocial professionals to evolve common minimum responses during emergencies. However, one continuing contentious issue has been the definitions of mental health and psychosocial support. The absence of these formal and agreed definitions may well interfere with coordinating minimum responses.

This article presents the potential of posttraumatic growth (PTG) among youths formerly associated with the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda. Through investigating life narratives of 12 such youths, this study aims to discover the potential of PTG as a consequence ofa forced time period with the LRA. By means of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) the narratives revealed four themes: social support; participation; self perception, and faith in God. These four themes are found to resemblefour of the five factors measuring PTG.

The abuse of alcohol and other drugs (AOD) is evidently a significant, but often neglected, problem in refugee camps. There are some differences compared with AOD problems in developed countries (notably fewer affected women) but also many similarities. Alcohol is the major problem in terms of behaviour and is often manufactured and traded by refugees themselves. Not all AOD users are AOD abusers, but identifying abusers may be worth the effort if it can be shown to reduce, rather than increase, the healthcare workload.

In refugee settings, alcohol and other psychoactive substances can potentiate many underlying problems and contribute to the erosion of social relations and community structure. Interventions to minimise harmful use of alcohol and other psychoactive substances can lead to positive changes, but must be customised to the specific needs of each setting Rapid assessments with appropriate tools, understanding the situation,partnership with workers and refugees, as well as inclusive approaches are all essential.

The earthquake in January 2010 that destroyed Port au Prince, Haiti, has been described as the most devastating humanitarian disaster on record. The author, a mental health professional and a dance movement therapist with more than 12 years working experience in Haiti, encountered numerous anecdotal reports of physical illness and psychological distress amongst rescue and recovery workers, humanitarian aid workers, and others. This field report describes a staff support programme in Haiti that consisted of three phases: 1) psychological first aid;

Psychological first aid (PFA) is an approach for providing basic psychological support to people in acute distress. It is now viewed as one of the primary early psychosocial interventions during, or immediately following, a crisis. World Vision International, War Trauma Foundation and World Health Organisation have developed a PFA guide for low and middle income countries (LAMIC) following acute emergencies.

Rwanda experienced extreme violence and genocide during a three month period starting in April 1994. In the northern regions, there had been ongoing violence since 1990. Many inhabitants still suffer emotionally from the consequences of this era. We performed a quantitative study to measure the effectiveness of sociotherapy; a community based psychosocial intervention carried out in northern Rwanda.