Mental health must be a priority in war zones like Gaza and Lebanon, NGO founder says
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00:00Well, there is increasing concern about the toll the conflicts that have gripped the Middle East is having on mental health in the region
00:07As people there continue to face unprecedented challenges
00:10While someone who knows all too well about that is Tara Karen glue who we can speak to now
00:15she's the founder of art of hope a non-profit organization that focuses on supporting the mental health and
00:22Psychological needs of war-torn refugees in conflicts around the world
00:26She's also a global affairs journalist author and adjunct professor at Georgetown University
00:32Thanks so much for joining us on the program really appreciate your time
00:35First of all, talk us through the work that your organization does with refugees
00:42Thank You Yanka
00:45You were just showing images out of
00:48Lebanon and Daryl Bala and we're going to talk about that in this segment
00:52But Lebanon a small country of six million that is home to two million
00:59refugees Syrian refugees including
01:02500,000
01:03Palestinian refugees was really the inspiration behind art of hope the organization that I launched back in
01:102017 with the mission to support
01:12The large influx of Syrian refugees fleeing war and conflict and also Isis at the time
01:20And also the vulnerable Lebanese population and
01:24Quite frankly, I was angry. I was angry because in my reporting
01:29I realized the little attention that was being paid on mental health and and the immense trauma faced by
01:36Individuals who flee war and conflict and are displaced with no hope
01:41and no sense of belonging and that's how art of hope got started and we've worked across Lebanon and
01:48And at that time
01:51Experiencing our work with the the Syrian refugee population. I didn't think that it can get worse
01:56But today what we are seeing in the region
02:01Is is just mind-boggling and and I say that
02:06With consideration for other conflicts around the world
02:10Every single person who's affected by war and conflict is facing some sort and form of trauma
02:17Whether it's Sudan Afghanistan and Ukraine and we also have by the way programming in Ukraine. But again, you got
02:25Just 30 minutes ago. I was talking to
02:28Two of our partners in Beirut right now 10 minutes walking distance from their home
02:36the
02:38Building was hit just last week another one of our partners who art of hope has been working with for
02:45Seven years. He lost his home in the Bekaa Valley. He's a sports coach
02:50He's someone who's been working with Syrian and Lebanese
02:54Populations for years and now he himself has lost his home
02:57And you know just moments ago
03:00One of our teachers is quite late right now
03:03in the evening
03:05From data Bala house one of our teachers. He's a young 27 year old a theater
03:14Actor and artist and he messaged me. He said, you know, we try to smile we laugh
03:20But deep down we all know it's a desperate attempt to escape
03:25So it's quite grim and and you know, we try to do the best we can with art of hope
03:31Truly harrowing stuff there
03:34We've recently marked one year of war in Gaza, let's focus on the plight of children there at the moment
03:41Just give us a sense of how vulnerable children there are and the trauma that they've gone through throughout this year
03:48absolutely, and I just want to
03:50Share this with your viewers. Very few people know that the Gaza Strip is
03:56One of the places in the world with the highest literacy rate people in that strip are educated
04:03They're ambitious. They have the same hopes and dreams the majority of them as young people and young professionals
04:10Around the world, right? But all of them are categorically stripped away from their dignity again
04:17I was told me that
04:19We're humiliated what's happening to us is humiliating and that is dangerous
04:25pertaining to children
04:27Again, almost all children in Gaza did not get a chance to go to school
04:32There was an interesting report
04:34Back in 2020 a study by UNICEF. It said more than half of Gazan children suffer from anxiety and depression and
04:42and 70% of the adults
04:45Equally and and I do wonder when you take everything away from a population that was already vulnerable
04:52What happens to that?
04:54And and that is dangerous when you take
04:59Someone's
05:00Belonging someone's hope someone's dignity that is dangerous
05:05And what we're facing right now is a generation that will have an immense amount of trauma
05:11you know the
05:13the reality on the ground is
05:15That every single person in Gaza either have lost an immediate family member or a distant family member people have been displaced
05:23not just once but twice but on multiple occasions and
05:27And that is not something that can be discarded
05:30these are hundreds of thousands of people hundreds of thousands of children who have seen so much that that
05:39cannot be processed and and and I
05:42Fundamentally believe that in any
05:45Rehabilitation effort mental health has to be a priority
05:49Well, let's talk about rehab
05:52Rehabilitation Tara tell us about what you would like to see being done
05:56What steps you would like to see being taken to help people struggling with their mental health in these conflict ridden?
06:03areas
06:09You know, I consider myself a messenger and someone who can just amplify the voices of people who are being affected by this enormous
06:16Amount of tragedy and trauma constant strikes constant
06:21Anxiety of death. That's nothing that that, you know, we would understand
06:27And I think if you ask every single one of these individuals who are experiencing thing, they would say stop this
06:33Stop stop stop stop stop the strikes every single person in Lebanon in Gaza and quite frankly elsewhere in the world
06:42Who is experiencing death destruction and airstrikes and loss
06:47would know very well that none of that is going to bring stability peace and security to anyone and I think powers-to-be need to
06:54Realize that and on top of that when you strip people away from
06:59Their dignity when you dehumanize a generation a popular entire population
07:06Like I said that is dangerous and that's when anger would it would would evolve into revenge and
07:13And history has shown that to us and I think these are very simple realities that need to be considered
07:22With the understanding that that this
07:25enormous amount of
07:28Destruction need to stop
07:30Well, we hope that the world he'll heeds your call there. That's Tara
07:34Karen glue. Thank you so much for giving us your insight. Good luck with the work that your
07:41Nonprofits Association does that's art of hope. Thank you so much for joining us on the program really appreciate getting your thoughts there
07:48Thank you
07:51Well