09/10/2025
This week I had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Nina Lyytinen about Azima project, which aims to promote mental health in refugee camps in Lebanon. We learnt about the difficult living conditions inside the different refugee camps, especially for Palestinian refugees. The camps have suffered a variety of lethal attacks over the years, and many refugees live in a permanent state of fight-or-flight and hypervigilance. The project experts are providing training to the social workers and management personnel of the camps to help them support traumatized individuals, and develop their own resilience and emotional regulation in this frequently dangerous and always challenging situation. Nina, as the main trainer, has been doing the field work in Lebanon, and has just returned and shared these very recent experiences with us. Anu Castaneda is the project leader and Sirkku Kivistö the assistant. Afterwards, we could listen to Taru Saari tell us about the activities of Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PSV), including a project in Afghanistan and cooperation with local NGOs, such us the Global Clinic, the Kide Foundation or Psychological Practitioners Finland ry. Thank you PSV for the work that you have done over the last 43 years to support the right for psychological and social wellbeing for everyone 🙏❤
Additionally, I had the opportunity to meet Lebanese psychologist Nicole Yammine, now residing in Finland. These spaces also provide us professionals opportunities for networking and finding colleagues with similar interests and visions, which can lead to new cooperation and communal work!
https://vastuu.fi/?page_id=972
