File:USAID Album 72157647436044136, image 30.jpg

• Description: Pepita* is a participant of the USAID Funded project “ACOPLE: Community-Based Treatment Services for Afro-Colombian Victims of Torture”, implemented by Heartland Alliance International. As part of our aim to provide context-specific, replicable, effective and sustainable community mental health services for 1600 survivors of torture and political violence, project participants are given emotional support through individual and/or group therapy. Sessions are complimented by Art-therapy such as dance-therapy and the use of social and community photography. After receiving psychosocial support in the ACOPLE Center in one of the bigger towns in the Colombian Pacific to help her overcome feelings of depression and anxiety related to her conflict-related traumatic event, Pepita was invited to participate in an art-therapy exercise of dance-therapy. This was led by an Afro-Colombian Psychologist who had studied dance-therapy in the US with a USG Fullbright scholarship. The exercise aimed to give participants new ways and tools of non-verbal forms of communication and enable them to express their feelings in ways different. In the photo, Pepita is enjoying one of the activation exercises, exploring the space around her to the sound of traditional music from the region. The importance of ensuring emotional and mental health of the poor and vulnerable is often overlooked when talking about ending extreme poverty. However, mental and emotional health is essential to ensure the daily functioning of all, and enable people who face conditions of poverty and vulnerability, to advance in their aim to overcome these circumstances and look for new opportunities.

Credit: Heartland Alliance International – Project ACOPLE (Colombia) / Gloria Carolina Barrera Mejía

• Album: 72157647436044136
• Image id: 14979776621
• Image url: 14979776621_0aa2761c66_o.jpg