Gabriele Mueller, Hamburg and Brac Project SEKA. Centre for recreation, therapeutic aid and education for women and children
- Project SEKA (KUCA SEKA) is a centre for recreation, therapeutic aid and education for women and children, who survived various traumas in the wars on the area of Former Yugoslavia and for other women and children being victims of violence, as well as for women workers and activists from all countries of Former Yugoslavia. The House is situated on the island of Brac in Southern Croatia.
As a result of the long lasting co-operation of women’s groups from Hamburg, Germany, with women’s groups in Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Serbia and Slovenia since 1992, the project was founded by the women’s organization "Koordinacija zenskih grupa SEKA" in Zagreb 27.09.96. This is an association of the Croatian women’s organizations "Centre for Women War Victims Zagreb", "Autonomous Women’s House Zagreb", "Centre for Women’s Studies Zagreb", "Women’s Group Split" and the German organization "SEKA Hamburg e.V.".
Background
As in all wars the main victims in the wars in the Balkan region (from 1991 on) were women and children. Thousands of them survived severe traumas through the long lasting experiences of various forms of general aggression (siege, shelling, missiles, snipers, imprisonment in detention camps, expulsion, ...) and direct violence (mistreating, rape and other forms of extreme torture, loss of near relatives, being hurt, ...) as well as extreme hunger, staying for a long time in cold and moist cellars, in damaged houses without water, electricity and heating.
Still today many of them are still refugees in their own country without perspective of a soon return into their pre-war homes, living under most difficult economic and housing conditions. The consequences of all these factors are psychological and medical problems as well as deep exhaustion, feelings of resignation and helplessness.
As another consequence of the war in the countries of Former Yugoslavia we see the fact of an increasing level of domestic violence towards women and children.
On the other hand also women workers and activists of various women’s organizations, supporting victims of violence since the last 9 years, are suffering from their personal traumatization as well as from secondary traumatisation through their work. This causes a high level of "burn-out" and exhaustion as they often had to overstep their own boundaries in order to help others. Especially the workers and activists of small organizations never had any opportunity to get relief from their own primary and secondary traumas (for example therapeutic or supervisional aid).
SEKA’s aims and objectives
SEKA aims
- to improve the physical and psychological health of women and children, victims of war and other forms of violence, by offering recreational stays and therapeutic help.
- to provide support, relief and education for workers / activists of women’s organizations.
- to support women and girls in gaining self-confidence, in getting aware about Women’s and Human Rights and in finding a future perspective, for example through seminars, consciousness raising groups and workshops especially for girls and young women.
- to improve the social, economic and political situation of women through participation in the process of democratisation in Croatia and by organising political education for women activists
- to offer a women’s space for local groups from the area of whole Former Yugoslavia and for international meetings to support a women’s network.
- to include women and children from all areas of Former Yugoslavia and from all population and religion groups in the program and to support the peace process in the area by strengthening communication and mutual understanding between women of these different groups. This is the basis for all groups and seminars taking place in SEKA House.
Activities from July 1997 to December 1999
Since the start of the project in July 1997 SEKA provided recreational stays with psychological help for 334 women and children, survivors of violence in war and / or domestic violence.
We offered further to 243 workers / activists from about 50 different women’s organizations therapeutic group / individual work or educational seminars for therapists. SEKA organised further several political educational seminars in co-operation with the Centre for Women’s Studies, Zagreb, and the Centre for Women War Victims Zagreb. The members of these seminars and therapeutic groups came from various organizations and from different population and religion groups in Bosnia-Hercegovina (Federation and Republika Srpska), Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia. Presently SEKA is co-operating with about 60 women`s groups and organizations in the area of Former Yugoslavia. SEKA is further member of the "Women’s Coalition ad hoc", which aims to improve the social, economic and political situation and the state of human rights for women in Croatia
Finances
The project is mainly financed by grants from German organizations, by the City of Hamburg, as well as by private donations from donors in Germany gathered through SEKA Hamburg e.V. For one and a half years we were supported by the European Commission (39% of the projects budget). Some grants came also from organizations in the U.K. and The Netherlands. Securing the budget is always very difficult as the personal capacities are low.
Project-Staff
Full-time: Co-ordinator (Mirjana Bilan), project manager and psychological-pedagogic leader (Gabriele Mueller), logistics and administration (Gordana Ivancevic).
(We urgently need a further therapist / psychologist, but this depends on the financial sources.)
Part-time: Cook (Marija Misetic), housekeeper (Fani Misetic).
Short-time (honorary): various local therapists (for example from Women’s Therapy Centre Medica Zenica, Women’s Therapy Centre Vive Zene Tuzla, Centre for Women War Victims, ...), some German trainers.
SEKA Hamburg e.V. is mainly dependent on the work of volunteers.
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Citation Gabriele Mueller, Project SEKA. Centre for recreation, therapeutic aid and education for women and children. In: Trauma Research Newsletter 1, Hamburg Institute for Social Research, July 2000.
URL http://www.TraumaResearch.net/net1/forum1/seka.htm
Copyright © 2000, Gabriele Mueller and trauma newsletter, all rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author and the trauma newsletter. For other permission questions, please contact via email the editor Cornelia_Berens@his-online.de.
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