WCCI trains crisis advocates

Manama, Nov.21 (BNA): The Women’s Crisis Care International (WCCI) today graduated 60 new crisis advocates who will comprise the first ever team of crisis advocate responders in the entire Arabian Gulf region. The crisis advocates come from all parts of Bahrain, and from many different countries. Together the group speaks more than 20 languages. The training covers a wide-range of topics including in-depth understanding of domestic and sexual violence, psychological reactions to trauma, crisis counseling techniques, respect for diversity and personal sub-conscious prejudice. There is an equal mix between theoretical and practical information. The rigorous training is based on the New York State curriculum for crisis counselors and it has been adapted to the context of Bahrain. It includes 40 in-class hours, as well as extensive outside reading and exercises. Women’s Crisis Advocates provide both emotional support, and logistic support for women who have suffered domestic or sexual violence and have gone to the hospital to get help. WCCI does this by collaborating with the hospital emergency rooms and creates a 24 hour, 7 day a week crisis advocate on-call calendar for the hospitals. Thus, when a woman goes into the emergency room to get medical treatment, the hospital staff automatically calls WCCI and a crisis advocate is dispatched immediately to the hospital – 24 hours a day. WCCI is working in collaboration with several hospitals throughout Bahrain, and hopes to expand into all hospitals in the region. All of the services provided to victims of violence are completely free of costs, and all expenses are covered by the organization. The short-term goal of the training is to create a highly-trained group of women’s advocates that are able to serve as crisis intervention specialists in the capacity of Women’s Crisis Advocates. The long-term goal of the program is to build upon the already progressive environment that exists here in Bahrain, by creating a community of compassion and care for women who have suffered abuse. Public health research indicates that although the violent incident itself is traumatizing, the most predictive factor of how well a victim of violence will recover, is how she is treated and care for after the incident. WCCI was founded and directed by Mary-Justine Todd. Ms. Todd, a native of New York City has a Master’s degree in international relations, focused on women’s protection programs as well as a Master’s degree in international public health, focused on violence against women. She has been working throughout the Gulf and Africa for more than 10 years. Three years ago, she joined her husband, Dr. Mohamed Elsayed here in Bahrain and founded WCCI. The training that was completed on November 20th was hosted by Ms. Eman Nooruddin, one of the founders and owners of Capital Knowledge, and the Dreams Foundation. The training was generously funded by the Aysha and Yusef Almoayyed Charitable Organization. Our guests of honor for the certificate ceremony were Mrs. Shirley Yateem, one of the founders of The Aysha Yateem Center for Family Violence as well as Mrs. Ann Roebuck the wife of the US Ambassador. In addition to providing crisis response services, WCCI also offers training programs as well as community education programs for schools, religious groups, hospitals, societies and corporations.