Traumatized children can be relieved by strengthening their mothers. This approach has been successfully tested and scientifically proven.

In 2020, Dr. Ann-Katrin Bockmann, a psychologist at the University of Hildesheim, visited Zaatari Camp in Jordan and was shocked by the extent of misery. But the research findings of a Syrian psychologist that she heard at a specialist congress in Jordan caught her attention. The findings proved the key role of mothers in healing whole families:  by offering mothers trauma accompaniment, children are benefitting directly.

Back in Germany, Dr. Ann-Katrin Bockmann began to activate her network. She, as well as Prof. Dr. Tom Holmes, an internationally working psychologist, are experienced in working with traumatized refugees. Together with Michael Borkowski, theologist and therapist from Hanover, they forged out a plan that turned their idea of strengthening mothers locally into practice.

But without actors in the target region in Lebanon and Jordan, this project wouldn’t be existing.  Ithraa, a Jordanian relief organization that has been working with refugees for years and training trauma advisors for working with mothers, is the local partner of the Leyla project in Lebanon and Jordan.

The organization of the Leyla Project is carried out by the Refugee Housing of the Christian community “Am Döhrener Turm” in Hanover, Germany. Here, a great number of dedicated people have been gathering precious experiences in working with refugees and their tough life stories.

Picture: A refugee family in a camp in the Middle East