ABOUT US
Mena Trauma Healing Center is a Christ-centered, non-profit organization, with a mission to equip churches and ministry organizations across 24 countries in the greater Middle East region, providing their local communities with Bible-based trauma care.
This trauma healing strategic initiative is a response to the current multifaceted suffering in the Middle East (refugee crisis, domestic abuse, religious persecution, etc.)
Trauma is the individual’s reaction to a real experiential or vicarious event, where the individual feels helpless and overwhelmed by fear and terror. Trauma is a highly personal syndrome that cannot be judged based on the event alone, be it a rape, an accident, or the loss of a loved one.
What we do for all people
Help
We help the helpless and hopeless
Equip
We equip leaders and organizations
Empower
We empower individuals and communities, through healing and restoration
AREAS OF INTERVENTION
Various types of personal and collective traumas
Targeted countries
Yearly traumatized beneficiaries
Leaders to be trained
WAR REFUGEE
Over 38 million people in the war zones have been displaced, either abroad or within their own countries, and are living in grossly inadequate conditions. About 26.4 million people worldwide have fled to other countries as refugees. Another 4.1 million people are asylum-seekers who have applied for refugee status but have not received it yet. An estimated 42% of refugees are children, among whom are about 1 million born as refugees from 2018 and 2020.
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
Persecution of Christians in the MENA region is still on the rise. Christians are being persecuted at near genocide levels, posing an existential threat to one of the region’s oldest religions, found a recent study. There is widespread evidence showing that Christians constitute by far the most widely persecuted religion. Evidence suggests that acts of violence and other intimidation against Christians are becoming more widespread.
SUICIDE
The necessity to improve social, cultural, and economic factors along with effective measures on suicide prevention, particularly among low and middle-income countries, performing more studies and precise registration of the cases, especially in the areas where suicide is considered social stigma and crime should be considered as high agenda in national and regional strategies.
DOMESTIC ABUSE VICTIMS
Despite some limited reforms, women continue to face entrenched discrimination and daily violence in the MENA region, amidst the continuous failure of governments to curb arbitrary arrests, abductions, assassinations, so-called “honor” killings, and other forms of gender-based violence, according to Amnesty International. Most recently, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to some countries reporting a rise in cases of domestic violence and calls to helplines due to prolonged confinement at home during lockdowns and curfews.
ADDICTIONS
There is limited data and information on illicit drug production, trafficking, and consumption in MENA. This can be attributed to the lack of capacities for data collection and analysis. Such information is essential, however, for the development of effective drug policies. Although MENA is primarily a drug trafficking and consumption region. Political instability has increased the vulnerability of MENA to illicit drug trafficking.
PANDEMIC-GENERATED TRAUMA
COVID-19 pandemic’s mental health impact on Arab countries is under-researched. Preliminary results of studies say that COVID-19 traumatic stress, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and cumulative stressors and trauma increased. While the pandemic has triggered a crisis in many of the region’s poorer countries, Many of the MENA region’s countries are not well equipped to manage a pandemic. Health care systems are weak, infrastructure is poor and there are far too few health caregivers. MENA countries are poorly positioned to manage this health crisis.
SEXUAL VIOLENCE & ABUSE
Gender-based Violence places women and girls in MENA particularly at risk, though not exclusively so. Proximity is a major factor, with Intimate Partner Violence shown to be a common form of GBV, as well as violence within families, including against children and adolescents. At least 35% of women in MENA have experienced some form of violence by an intimate partner during their lifetime – placing MENA second highest in the world. In all probability, even this figure is highly underestimated, given that gender-based violence goes greatly underreported everywhere.
DEATH & FAMILY LOSS
Most people experiencing normal grief and bereavement have a period of sorrow, numbness, and even guilt and anger. Grief scholar George Engel, M.D. (1961) related the mourning of a death, to the healing of physical wounds; implying, the loss of a loved one is psychologically traumatic to the same extent that being severely wounded or burned is physiologically traumatic. People across the MENA region face the death of a loved one every day due to numerous reasons, and this has been leading to many psychological issues, including PTSD, particularly if the loss was tragic and unexpected.
Strategic Objectives
Expand Bible-based trauma healing throughout the MENA region
Impact
Impact the local community, through emotionally healed individuals who have graduated from our program.
Christian-based Trauma Healing
Establish christian-based trauma healing in hard to- reach areas, through virtual training and healing group sessions.
Ultimate Objective
Our ultimate objective is to bring individuals and communities to christ.
Psychological Support
Provide additional psychological support referrals and resources for special cases to under-resourced populations.
On-site conferences and webinars
We bring together professionals from different fields and influential thinkers to raise awareness and discuss topics of vital importance to trainers, trainees, and people we serve.
Chidren & Youth
Establish specific trauma healing programs for children and youth.
Volunteer
Delivering help and hope
through sponsorship.
Thank you for your interest in Mena Trauma Healing Center! If you’d like to be part of our volunteer network, whether by praying, providing administrative, or financial support, or even participating in one of our training programs, please get in touch with us.
Become a Volunteer