A pack of cards could help provide a valuable key in unlocking new, insightful routes to post-torture support for survivors fleeing their homelands and seeking sanctuary.
The new toolkit, Supporting Survival, which aims to help asylum seeker and refugee survivors of torture and torturous violence, has been designed by a Lancaster University professor.
Built on more than 15 years of research focussing on social harm, Professor in Criminology Victoria Canning, working with the Danish Institute Against Torture (DIGNITY), has designed the kit which includes an easy-to-use pack of cards as its centrepiece.
For many refugees and people seeking asylum, the journey to find security and safety, can be made even more difficult through exposure to further violence and other forms of trauma along the way.
Understanding torture and torturous violence and their impacts on survivors and families or communities is complex. Memories of atrocities, cruel and inhuman treatment, acts of brutality and sexualised abuse are often intrusive, but socially silenced.
The set of 52 cards and has been divided into four main colour-coded themes: definitions of violence and torture, surviving violence, barriers to support, and embedding positive practice.
Each card can be read individually or in small groups with content that can both inform and spark discussion. Three sections include a 'Reflection Card' to add participant perspectives on support.
Professor Canning says she hopes the new toolkit will bridge the gaps between survivor experiences, information sharing and positive new ways of working as well as providing a rich and accurate insight to support recovery with the strength to carve a new future.
The cards are being distributed to regions where DIGNITY works, including Ukraine and Gaza, as well as to grassroot and non-governmental organisations. They are for use by survivors and practitioners, including medics and psychologists, volunteers, sexual violence organisations and torture response organisations.
The cards are designed to be myth-busting - providing a platform for consciousness reasoning and information sharing.
People can use the toolkit on their own or working in groups to make speaking about traumatic experiences more accessible.
The information has been garnered over many years and by speaking to an array of people including the heads of key organisations working with survivors and survivors themselves.
This week saw an official international launch of the toolkit at the at Nordic Trauma Conference in Copenhagen with a UK unveiling on November 27 attended by DIGNITY's Head of Rehabilitation Nikolai Cerisier Roitmann together with other guests including a former prosecutor at the International Criminal Court.
"The toolkit is based on insights from practitioners and people seeking asylum," explains Professor Canning, who has undertaken all the research and design.
"Much of the content is from two of my books, but these are not always easily accessible to practitioners, survivors or students. So many people had offered their time and knowledge on really difficult subject areas.
"The toolkit has been a way to ensure that their voices and expertise are easily available to people in a way that will, hopefully, positively influence the support landscape for survivors of torture and torturous violence."
The toolkit will be distributed to around 200 NGOs around the world.
'Supporting Survival', is funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council and Lancaster University's Impact Acceleration Account.
Professor Canning is a Zemiologist, who studies unfair or harmful things in society and injuries to individuals. Her research areas include torture, sexualised violence, asylum rights, refugee rights and immigration detention.
