Seychelles Bible Society holds healing session for students |25 March 2022

Ms Dodin facilitating the session (Photo: Thomas Meriton)

Following the interruption of its trauma healing sessions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Seychelles Bible Society has re-started the programme for secondary schools and yesterday the session was for students at the Plaisance secondary.

The training of trainers programme for the youths is to fight and stand up against bullying, physical abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, grief, emotional, family break ups and drug abuse, among other traumatic anti-social behaviour in the school, in the community and in the homes.

It is also to form a group committee among the traumatised students, for attending to and to counsel other students who are being traumatised.

The training is divided into two segments – the healing and counselling part, and spiritual part.

The session yesterday morning at the Plaisance secondary school was for S3 students who are and have undergone the above. There will be another session that will target S2 students.

Deputy head teacher for student support, Brigitte Philoe, said that apart from the one counsellor, the school also reaches out to other agencies to help with traumatised students.

“We have only one counsellor and it is not enough to cater for the number of children suffering from the many trauma calamities. There are a lot of traumatised children in our school, especially now that we have quite a number among the S1 level also, and sessions like this one is of great help to the school,” Ms Philoe said.

The executive secretary of SBS, Margaret Maillet, said that the society wants to re-start the programme as many more children are being traumatised, among whom are those recently living with grief following the death of their loved ones as a result of the pandemic.

“So we bring this programme to help the students to address their different traumatised situations that they found themselves into. Aside from the counselling part of the trauma itself, we have also introduce the use of the bible as a source of healing also for those who have been traumatized,” said Mrs Maillet  who noted that the society will continue with the programme in other secondary schools.

She said that the society will also be using social media platforms to train and pass on messages to the youths who will in turn carry on with the process by training other youths, not captured, on the effects of being traumatised. 

Some of the students who talked to Seychelles NATION said that the programme has helped them to understand the situation they were in and has further brought some relief and has removed some of the pain they were suffering.

They said that apart from being in a better position to look after themselves, they are in better position also to help others who are in the same situation as them.

The traumatised side of the session was facilitated by consultant Beryl Dodin while the spiritual side was facilitated by Mervin Pool.

Apart from Plaisance secondary, only the students from Beau Vallon and English River secondary schools have benefited from the programme.

Patrick Joubert