Why
Why was this project created?
Since the start of the war in Ukraine in Feb 2022, millions of Ukrainians have fled their homes and country, among them many women of all ages and children. War-related experiences in Ukraine and the challenges of resettlement in new places cause many to suffer from anxiety, depression, sleeping problems and PTSD, a loss of hope and feelings of anger. At the same time, the majority of refugees and displaced from Ukraine carry great inner resources of resilience, hope and solidarity. While many will be able to overcome the mental, emotional and physical impacts through their own resilience resources, others need support to strengthen their coping mechanisms.
The International Association for Human Values (IAHV) is specialised in supporting mental health (MH) and psychosocial wellbeing of refugees and displaced people. Target groups are empowered with the knowledge, skills and tools to improve their own physical, mental and emotional wellbeing so they do not become dependent on external support. IAHV’s unique added value in contexts of mass displacement are its self-empowering methods, scalable approach, evidence base and cost-effectiveness. In addition, IAHV programs also strengthen the psychosocial wellbeing and performance capacity of service providers and MH professionals working with refugees and displaced people, and build new local capacity in MHPSS.
Who
About us
Project initiators
IAHV & Art of Living Foundation
The International Association for Human Values (IAHV) and the Art of Living Foundation are non-profit, United Nations-affiliated organization with consultative status at ECOSOC (UN). Founded in 1997 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and other global humanitarian leaders in Geneva, Switzerland, IAHV’s mission is to build a sustainable and inclusive peace by promoting the development of human values in both the individual and societies on a global scale. IAHV works in partnership with the Art of Living Foundation, founded in 1981, which has reached hundreds of millions of people in 156 countries through its stress management and empowerment programs.
IAHV is one of the pioneering organisations globally implementing an integrated psychosocial peacebuilding approach, effectively transforming wellbeing, mindsets, behavior and attitudes of individuals and communities affected or involved in conflict and violence.
Characteristics of IAHV Approach
- Self-empowering
- Effective
- Evidence-based
- Cost-effective
- Applicable across different cultural and social background
- Scaleable
- Easily accessible and low risk of stigmatization
IAHV’s innovative, evidence-based psychosocial support approach
- Impact in 20+ conflict and war zones
- Trauma-relief and healing for 700.000 beneficiaries in war and conflict zones and following manmade disasters (Colombia, Sri Lanka, Kosovo, Iraq, Lebanon, Balkans, Kashmir, Ivory Coast, USA, Afghanistan, …)
- Reintegration of 7.000 ex-combatants
- Psychosocial support for tens of thousands healthcare workers around the world during the Covid pandemic
- PTSD relief programs for war veterans
Distinct from and complementary to traditional approaches, IAHV’s scientific approach effects profound and holistic change, not just alleviating symptoms and providing “psycho-social” support, but also laying a strong psychosocial foundation for family and social cohesion, learning ability, professional development, active citizenship, and even peacebuilding and reconciliation.
For more info, see www.iahv-peace.org
Stress reduction
Providing affordable and accessible trauma- and stress-relief tools to large populations and small groups, IAHV’s programs produce measurable results, including rapidly and significantly reducing the symptoms of PTS, depression and anxiety, and improving the quality of life for individuals and communities. More than 100 international peer-reviewed articles on IAHV’s stress reduction techniques have been published, showing significant improvements in indicators of psychological and physiological wellbeing. Facilitating significant improvements on a wide scale of indicators, IAHV programs empower refugees and displaced people to deal with past wounds, current challenges and build their future.
Project partner
Fundacja Understanding
Fundacja Understanding is a Polish NGO with vast experience in projects on migrants integration, psychological resilience, mental wellbeing and multilingualism, as well as research on their impact.
What
About project
Unique added value
Full project summary
The International Association for Human Values (IAHV) is specialised in supporting mental health (MH) and psychosocial wellbeing of refugees and displaced people. Its unique added value in contexts of mass displacement are its self-empowering methods, scalable approach, evidence base and cost-effectiveness.
While many refugees and displaced from Ukraine will be able to overcome the mental, emotional and physical impact of recent events through their own resilience resources, others may suffer from depression, anxiety, PTSD, sleeping problems, hopelessness and other mental/physical/emotional stresses and need support to strengthen their coping mechanisms.
However, many health care systems and MH professionals in Europe are overburdened; standard psycho-pharmacological, psychotherapeutic and 1-on-1 interventions may be inefficient or ineffective; socio-cultural, language and bureaucratic hurdles may prevent people from getting professional help.
IAHV offers effective, scalable and cost-effective programs, applicable across cultures, free from risk of stigmatisation and without requiring the involvement of often scarce MH specialists. They produce measurable results, including significantly reducing the symptoms of PTS, depression and anxiety, and improving the quality of life for individuals and communities.
This project aims to develop and implement a widely available, innovative, scalable and evidence-based approach to strengthen MH and psychological wellbeing of refugees and displaced people in Europe (with a focus on people from Ukraine). It includes strengthening the psychosocial wellbeing and performance capacity of service providers and MH professionals as well as building new capacity.
Through this project IAHV would be able to apply its expertise in MHPSS for refugees and displaced people in Europe, share its knowledge, and sync with other best practices, with a view on more structural and wider scale integration.
Our goals
Objectives
1) Strengthened mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of 16.000 refugee and displaced children and adults (with a focus on people from Ukraine)
2) Strengthened psychosocial wellbeing and performance capacity of 700 service providers and mental health professionals working with refugees and displaced people in Europe (with a focus on Russian / Ukrainian MH professionals)
3) Increased capacity among service providers and displaced people for wider scale implementation in Europe by training 50 new HRE facilitators across Europe, including Russian/Ukrainian speaking
4) Lay the foundation for sustainable multiplication and institutionalisation of IAHV’s effective and cost-effective MHPSS approach in Europe through sustainable and new partnerships
We are not alone
Partnering Organisations
- Art of Living Polska Foundation: Project lead applicant; organise and implement project activities on a large scale in Poland – with a special focus on camps for children refugees and PC for service providing NGOs
- IAHV Belgium: supervision, mentoring, coordination, quality control, M&E, networking (www.iahv-belgium.org)
- The Art of Living Lietuva: organise and implement project activities on a large scale in Lithuania - with a special focus on schools
- IAHV Germany: organize and implement project activities on a large scale in Germany
- Fundacja Understanding: project management and implementation support, quality assessment, M&E, outreach to target groups in Poland
When
Workshops & trainings
At the moment, registration via an external form is available
About workshops & trainings
ENTRY Program: HRE Workshop (Healing, Resilience and Empowerment) – ONLINE and IN-PERSON
The HRE workshop is a low threshold workshop to address psycho-social consequences of conflict and violence, releasing acute and basic stress and fears, improving sleep and providing relief.
The HRE workshop is a basic IAHV intervention program that can reach a large number of individuals while still affecting strong personal benefits.
The workshops are evidence-based, inclusive, accessible, applicable across cultures and cost-effective. They have an immediate positive effect and empower participants with techniques they can continue practicing independently to improve their own wellbeing.
The HRE program is a more intense trauma-relief workshop allowing to release deeper stresses and traumas, reduce depression and anxiety, strengthen overall wellbeing and resilience. (includes SKY technique)
Trauma-Relief, Resilience and Human Values Trainings (TRH) for minors age 7-18 is a more profound training, providing deeper trauma-relief and healing, strengthening resilience, improving learning capacity, inculcating human values, connectedness, positive self-esteem and outlook. (includes SKY technique)
Training of Trainers is to build the capacity to become effective multipliers of the HRE workshops on a continuous basis in an integrated way
