Taking in over 300,000 war refugees in the space of several weeks is an unprecedented challenge for the Czech Republic logistics-wise and in terms of psychological support. A team of experts from the Israel Trauma Coalition, which trains government organizations, NGOs, healthcare workers, teachers and counsellors how to get communities back on their feet following a disaster, visited the Czech Republic this week to share their know-how. I spoke to Gili Nir from ITC about their mission.
“Basically, the ITC is an organization in Israel that helps the population to deal with the whole Israeli situation. We do resilience building, trauma therapy and prepare individuals, families, communities to deal with crisis situations. We try to share our hard-learned lessons of the Israeli situation with the rest of the world. Of course, since the war broke out we have been working very hard on this refugee situation.”
The Czech Republic has taken in over 300,000 refugees from Ukraine, manly women and children. What problems should we be looking out for?
“First of all, I want to tell you that I was amazed and even in awe to how the Czech Republic is accepting this situation as a nation, as a state and even as private people. I have met some absolutely amazing Czech private people who are doing amazing initiatives to help the refugees. I also saw how you as a state, as a city are being organized to accept these people. I have also been to Poland and Germany and other places and every state has its own way how to deal with the situation but here in Prague, in the Czech Republic, I saw something different. I saw people really opening their homes, their hearts and saying “we are with you in this bad situation”. So I really was inspired to see and to feel your reaction to this situation.”
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Author: Daniela Lazarová