With so much news about the death of Bin Laden and devastating tornadoes and floods in the US, we often forget that military are still serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last summer, the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children presented a special session on the issues of military and their families. Sue Diaz, a journalist and mother of a son who served in Iraq again reminds us of what families and those deployed have encountered, both in the theater of battle and on the home front. Sue explains : “Sergeant Diaz’s [Sue’s son] second deployment put him south of Baghdad in the region aptly termed the Triangle of Death. There his platoon experienced extraordinarily heavy casualties during the height of the Iraqi insurgency. That unit has since become the focus of considerable media attention following events that made headlines in the summer of 2006: an insurgent attack at a remote outpost on three of their own–one killed at the scene, the other two kidnapped, their bodies found days later; and a terrible war crime committed against an Iraqi family by four soldiers from First Platoon.”
For trauma specialists working with returning military and their families, the following short film will remind you of the important work we have to do in the next few years with these individuals who will be returning as the US begins troop withdrawals from the region. And for all of us in honor of the upcoming Memorial Day this month, let’s take a moment to remember the sacrifice that military and their families make each and every day to work toward resolution of conflict, both in Iraq and Afghanistan and at home where for some the internal battles continue.
Has someone ever rescued you? When I say ‘”rescue,” I don’t mean rescue in the sense of “save the day” or “self-sacrifice.” I mean rescue in the sense of changing, or even saving, a life. As trauma specialists, that is what we ultimately hope to achieve with the children we see. Our central goal and intention in trauma work is to engage in actions that redirect, repair, and restore children’s lives.
Most of us in helping professions probably experienced one or more life-changing events that altered the course of our lives for the better. It’s those people in our lives who affected us in deeply positive ways at critical moments are also those who profoundly impacted our worldview and set us on the life-long path to pay it forward to others. Emmanuel Jal is a very dramatic example of an individual whose life changed in an instant when someone liberated him from a world of violence, trauma, and war. Jal is now a renowned musician and a former child soldier; his life is a tale of redemption, but mostly it’s about salvation and a pivotal moment in his life when he was rescued by British aid worker, Emma McCune. Here is Jal’s story, as he tells it in his own words:
My Name is Emmanuel Jal, and I was born in war torn Sudan.
I do not know when I was born, but I believe I took my first breath of oxygen sometime in the early 80s.
My country has been at war for over a decade. I am from southern Sudan where the people are tall and beautiful with smooth skin similar in colour and texture to that of roasted beans.
At the age of seven I, along with thousands of other children was taken from Sudan to Ethiopia, to learn to read and write. Ethiopia at that time was like a city run by children; there were over 30,000 of us in total. During my time there, I learned 8 languages, but as time passed we learned that we had in fact been bought there to be trained as child soldiers. I escaped from the growing army when people started to lose their vision and started fighting one another. Our common enemy being our Sudanese people from the north. Unfortunately I did not reach home because a number of serious events occurred as we embarked on the long journey home.
I ended up in a town called Waat. It was here that I met aid worker Emma McCune. She rescued me, by disarming me and smuggling me into Kenya. Whilst in Kenya Emma put me into school and adopted me. Emma said, “OK, I’ll take you to school.” That’s what I’d been praying for. She smuggled me onto a flight to Nairobi. I hid among the bags and when we got to Nairobi it was difficult and strange — a different world. But I adjusted to it.
Unfortunately a year after I was rescued Emma was killed in a fatal car accident. After this tragedy things became increasingly difficult for me. I turned to music as a method of therapy and started singing in church. I discovered I had a talent for music at the age of 20. [ from Jal’s Facebook page]
If you have time, take a few minutes to watch a film of Jal’s 2009 talk for TED and listen to his tribute to Emma McCune:
My childhood was by no means as dramatic or crisis-oriented as that of Emmanuel Jal, but it had its challenges. My family life was stable, but it was not a childhood of privilege or without stress. I grew up one street over from public housing; if you have read the book Riding in Cars with Boys, you have read about the actual neighborhood in which I lived and struggles of those who grew up in that neighborhood. I was fortunate to have parents who did their best to help me feel safe. Luckily, I also encountered a number of individuals who recognized my potential at critical moments during my school-age years. One was sixth grade teacher Mr. Harrington who taught me to have a voice and the courage to express myself. Another was a high school teacher Mr. Granucci who saw in me the potential to go to college, something that rarely happened for most teenagers in my neighborhood. Mr. Granucci literally sprung me from high school detention hall [yes, I did time in detention] and convinced me I could tackle subjects like calculus and Latin. I bless Mr Harrington and Mr. Granucci for believing in me—by the end of high school, I graduated fifth in my class of over 500 students.
Emmanuel Jal was a child soldier, immersed in war and terror, but his story is not too different than some of stories we encounter with children we see who survive violent homes or neighborhoods on a daily basis, even in the US. But more importantly, we all have had to survive something in life and we all have been rescued, one way or another. So, who rescued you? You are here today because someone cared, even in some small way. And you may have made a commitment to help others because that someone made the same commitment to help you at a critical moment and ultimately changed your life. Just like Emma McCune did for Emmanuel Jal– and it made all the difference.
If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to make plans to attend the 2010 Annual Childhood Trauma Practitioners Assembly, “Supporting Children of Deployed Parents: Lessons Learned, Helpful Strategies.”This year’s four-day conference will focus on practical strategies for practitioners who work with military families** through a variety of workshop and panel presentations. The assembly will be held at Macomb ISD Education Center Clinton Township, MI, from July 13 to 16, 2010. Read more by visiting the TLC website here.
According to a report released by the National Center for Children in Poverty [NCCP], Columbia University School of Public Health notes that children and youth in military families have a higher rate of mental health challenges than non-military family children. There are currently 2 million children of military families who are growing up in this decade of war and conflict. Among these children, about 900,000 have experienced multiple deployments of one or more parents in the armed services. These individuals endure long separations from parents who are often at risk for harm or injury, undergo frequent moves to new places, and attend multiple schools over their young lives. Sometimes they have a birthday or graduation, prom, or sports events without a parent present to share their achievements or developmental milestones. Not surprisingly, these challenges may negatively impact children’s school performance, interpersonal relationships, and behavior.
While these situations are stressful for even high-functioning adults, many of these children show remarkable resiliency, too. They get up each day, go to school, take care of younger siblings, and help the non-deployed parent when the spouse or partner is unavailable during a tour of duty. In particular, teenagers often rise to take on added responsibility on the home front and even demonstrate a sense of pride in helping to keep the family system stable for their younger siblings while mom or dad is away. Compared to younger children, many teens display extraordinary emotional strength, realizing that, for example, “mom cannot do it all” and feel a sense of confidence in being able to assist and contribute in meaningful ways.
During adolescence, teenagers with deployed parents also benefit from peer groups; in fact, participation in group sports is a significant mitigating factor in the reduction of stress reaction for many teens confronted by the stress of a repeated deployed parent. So in addition to what we may learn about how multiple deployments impact children of the military, we also have many lessons to learn about their resilience; their abilities to adapt to and transcend difficult challenges; how they find resilience; and how non-deployed parents successfully help their children through stressful periods and retain a strong family foundation.
It remains to be seen how this decade of war and multiple deployments will impact children, families, communities, and even our nation. What we learn from children and families of military during this unique time in history will not only inform how we approach intervention with those who have endured separation or loss during war, we will also increase our learning curve about trauma informed care for children in general.
**And just a final word of encouragement: If you don’t work with military families, consider enhancing your trauma intervention skills via the National Institute for Trauma and Loss Certification courses; you can attend Level 1 and Level 2 courses in addition to other workshops on non-military trauma and loss subjects during the four-day conference. National Institute faculty including Dr. William Steele, Caelan Kuban, myself, and others are looking forward to meeting and interacting with you!
Be well,
Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, LPCC, LPAT
Resources
For more information on children in the military in addition to the upcoming TLC Practitioner Assembly, the US Department of Defense has a helpful, frequently updated website at:
For a copy of Children’s Mental Health: What Every Policymaker Should Know [Columbia University National Center for Children in Poverty, 2010], go to this link and follow the instructions to download a PDF copy.
With so much news about the death of Bin Laden and devastating tornadoes and floods in the US, we often forget that military are still serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last summer, the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children presented a special session on the issues of military and their families. Sue Diaz, a journalist and mother of a son who served in Iraq again reminds us of what families and those deployed have encountered, both in the theater of battle and on the home front. Sue explains : “Sergeant Diaz’s [Sue’s son] second deployment put him south of Baghdad in the region aptly termed the Triangle of Death. There his platoon experienced extraordinarily heavy casualties during the height of the Iraqi insurgency. That unit has since become the focus of considerable media attention following events that made headlines in the summer of 2006: an insurgent attack at a remote outpost on three of their own–one killed at the scene, the other two kidnapped, their bodies found days later; and a terrible war crime committed against an Iraqi family by four soldiers from First Platoon.”
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