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KRC annual report 2009 Khiam Centers Annual report about the project of rehabilitation for victims of torture
The stability of the secuirty and political situation has helped in the improvement of khiam centers activities, thus the center continued the third year of the medical, social and psychological assistance for victims of torture project funded by the European Union and the United Nations voluntary fund for victims of torture and OAK foundation that provides the assistance for victims of detention and torture and their families, besides the relatives of the missing in the Israeli and Syrian prisons. The mobile clinic, funded by the European Union has improved a lot the activities of the center and facilitated its activits' in its rehabilitation program for marginalized and neglected category by the governmen. Thus the number of beneficeries has increased and this clinic has made the center's access to the Lebanese prisons and providing medical and psychological assistance for the prisoners. On the medical aspect: 802 victims of torture and their families got benfiet from the following different medical services: consultations, medicine, laboratory analysis, X-rays, and transfering to hospitals. And 122 cases got benfiet from health care home visits and 144 cases got benfiet from the diabetes test and 27 cases got benfiet from phsiotherapy sessions. The number of medical days reached 12 all over the Lebanese provinces (North-South-Beirut and Bekaa) 468 victims of torture and their families got benfiet from it. Three medical seminars were organized for women accompanied with free of charge mammography. 17 doctors from different professions were involved in the above medical services. The number of benfiecieries from the medical services of the families of the missing including the ones in the tent of the missing in front of ESCWA reached 116 case. In the center premises in Beirut, the number of benefieries has reached 97 and the cases who suffer from chronic diseases reached 225 were it was obvious the following percentges of the diseases 16.39% suffer from high blood pressure which is the highest percentage, 6.69 suffer from ruhmatism, 7.2% suffer from diabetes due to the physical and psychological torture inside the detention places and we would like to point the importance of the presence of the new medical devices and the medicines that the center receives from the ministry of health, these devices and medicines improved the services of the center. The house of the Lebanese Detainee: (Deir Siryan): The KRC staff paid 82 visits for former detainees in order to followup their social and medical situation and the medical services have been offered for 410 cases, these services include laboratory analysis, echography, X-rays, simple surgeries, physiotherapy for 27 cases, 6 medical days, and psychological consultation for 66 cases. The center also implemented in the south psycho-social activities for the families and children of the detainees and organized ceremonies for different occasions, the number of activities is 16, besides training sessions on drawing, handicrafts in order to improve the childrens skills. Several education and social organizations and institutions visited the center. And the relation and cooperation with the Indonsian and Spanish battalions in the UNIFLforces has been strengthened. Besides, the media and reporters visit to the center, and the role of the volunteers is very important in the success of the activities. On the Socail aspect: The staff made of doctors and social workers continued their social visits to the places where the victims of torture and their families are allocated in Beirut, the north, and the south. It was obvious according to our experience and the international experiences that rehabilitation center should be available in the areas where the former detainees live. We have also organized activities in the former detainees houses in North-Lebanon where we don’t have premises and these activities proved successful. The center has organized 54 weekly meetings for victims of torture, mothers of the missing and families of detainees, besides that, the center implemented 10 monthyly meetings and filled 292 application forms for victims of torture and victims of arbitrary detention in the following areas: - 181 in the south. - 84 in the north. - 25 in Beirut. - 2 in Al-chouf. Besides that the center has done meetings for the volunteers who helped in the success of the project and its activities. These field visits revealed the great suffering nad the social, psychological and economical traces on the families of the detainees and the missing, and the spread of unemployment, illetreacy and urgent needs was obvious. The Lebanese government did not offer about this social class and it’s left without providing it with social and medical care and especially the ones who have physical disabilities. The center organized activities on the following different occasions : - Mother’s Day. - World refugee Day. - The memory of closing Khiam Detention Camp. - World Day for prevention of child abuse. - Anniversary Convention on the Rights of the Child. - Internaional day on torture prevention (June 26). - The International day for Human Rights (December 10). The center organized 8 vocational training sessions for former detainees and their families, we mention from it the following topics: Hairdressing, First Aid, Sewing and Handicrafts etc….the number of beneficieries from these sessions reached 175 persons from the north and the south. The topics of these sessions were chosen according to the victims and their children needs, these session improved their vocational skills and enabled them to face the difficulties of the economical situation and many of them mastered a profession and got merged in the social and economical cycle, and it also gave them selfconfidence and hope for the future. The center organized a training session entiteled “Empowering the activists working in the area against Torture; Listening techniques, monitoring and documentation” by the expert Dr.Raed Abou Rabieh from the international red cross committee in Geneva, this session took place the 9th of July 2006 at Mayflower Hotel. The center organized also a training session entiteld “Empowering the activists working in the area against Torture; and Rehabilitation (2)“Rehabilitation Schools, Social & Cultural environment” given by the expert Dr.Ahmad Douraidi from the 9th till the 11th of october 2009 at commodore Hotel. On the occasion of December 10 the center organized a workshop entiteled “Towards an efficient participation of the Civil Society In elaborating the parallel shadow report on human rights in Lebanon”, it was given by Dr.Kamal Mashriqe from the Human rights instituation in Geneva at Gefinor Rotana Hotel. KRC staff visited many muncipalities and associations and provided 163 families with different social services of victims of torture and families of the missing. On the psychological aspect: Psychologically the number of direct cases reached 82 against 26 indirect case. The diagnosis ranged between PTSD, anxiety, depression, psycho-somatic diseaes, mal-adaptation, stomach ache, back ache, headache, joint ache, diabetes, and dermatology. Most victims of torture from various regions are suffering from bad economic situations; the concerns of living is the basic needs' since they can't afford medicines for themselves and for their family members the same thing for the school stationary. These additional life stresses require an action plan to reduce there suffering through group and individual therapy, health and social support. These additional life stresses requires a deep work to reduce ex-detainees sufferings' through group and individual psychotherapy, health and social support. Several psychological techniques have been applied such as: relaxation and psychological guidance, individual and group therapy and this multiplicity of techniques reflected positive effects. The center issued many reports and documents and participated as each year in the sessions of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva as part of AMAN network where the center raised the issue of missing and submitted reports and documents for the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights about enforced disappearance in Lebanon and the Palestinian detainees' conditions at Israeli prisons. Lebanese Prisons: The center arranged 12 field visits from June 2009 till December 2009 for the following 12 Lebanese prisons: Roumieh, Nabatiyah, Tibnin, Al-Qabi (Tripoli), Jeb-Jenin, Aley (Underage prison/ Dahr-Albashak), Tyre, Baabda, Jazzin, Saida, Zahle women's prison. 495 cases have benefited from health services, 45 cases get the diabetes test, 11 cases were transferred for specialist doctors, and 13 psychological cases inside the prisons. On the occasion of Christmas and New Year's Eve a female hairdresser visited Baabda prison which delighted the women prisoners there. The center distributed for the prisoners brochures about the detainees rights', breast cancer, swine-flu, and arranged a health symposium about personal hygiene inside the minors' prison. The majority of prisons are not valid to be proper prisons because of humidity since they are in the ground floors and some of them underground, which increases the percentage of allergies, asthma, and leads to overcrowding inside the rooms, moreover several prisons are suffering from the lack of pharmacies, laundry rack clothing, fatal shortage in chronic medicines, in addition to the absence of health plan and the lack of nurses and specialist doctors. Lebanese prisons are related to human dignity; despite these miserable conditions for the prisons the government is still not giving the prisons the needed priority because of the absence of an emergency plan to solve this humanitarian issue despite the increasing deaths and the claims of prisoners and the civil society organizations. New projects: The center's activity is not only concentrated on health, psychological, and social assistance for the victims of torture and their families at the end of 2009 year it was expanded to include the Iraqi refugees issue and marginalized women issue. The Iraqi refugees' project which is implemented by the center with the coordination of the International Relief and Development (IRD) aims to improve the Iraqi refugees' skills in Lebanon in order to get a career and be productive members, so this empowers their return right to Iraq this come through providing job opportunities inside Lebanon and helping them to get legal residence. Moreover "Decreasing Women's Marginalization" project which is funded by the Open Society Institute aims to compensate marginalized woman, helping her to get a job, knowing her rights', and strengthening the mechanisms to reach her rights' through advocacy campaigns, organizing sessions about violence and torture, international conventions, and vocational training sessions for the Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi, and foreign marginalized woman in rural villages. Conclusion: Health, psychological and social assistance project for victims of torture and their families' achieved enormous achievements during the last years through providing health, social, psychological and vocational support for those who suffered from detention and torture. This support rebuilds their confidence, boosted their spirits, and provided them with new skills as a rehabilitation right and compensation from the government's neglect. As we are proud of our achievements in the rehabilitation field in Lebanon and in the region overcoming all political and security difficulties, and increasing sectarianism, we confirm our project is not a substitute of the government responsibilities and duties in developing health, social and economic programs for the victims of torture and their relatives' and for the missing families'. The project revealed the needs' of ex-detainees, their families' and the victims of enforced disappearance, in which our project and other civil society organizations can't afford these health and social needs. Our role is reducing the sufferings' of the victims of torture, rebuilding their self-confidence, working with them and with other activists in human rights field and resisting violence and torture to demand the officials to integrate them in a real rehabilitation, compensation, and preventing such violations project. |