Healing hidden wounds of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia

When Ephraim was released from prison thanks to his mother's intervention, he tried once again to leave Eritrea.

 “The soldiers caught me at the border, beat me up badly, and sent me back to prison. The injuries from the beating were getting worse. I started coughing, and I couldn’t sleep because the floor was too hard and painful. I did not receive any medical help until things became pretty bad. At that point I was sent to the hospital. I was treated and sent back to the prison,” he recalls.

Ephraim was eventually freed and made a third attempt to flee the country, this time reaching the refugee camps in northern Ethiopia. He is now 17 years old. 

Need for mental health

Many other Eritreans have gone through similar ordeals. Their experiences can have physical as well as psychological consequences, and the mental health issues are often far more complex to identify and treat. In order to provide more comprehensive health care for refugees, MSF started a mental health project in 2015 for the Hitsats and Shimelba camps. With around 2,300 new monthly arrivals, refugee camps in northern Ethiopia are one of the first destinations for Eritreans leaving their country.

Robel Araya, MSF mental health supervisor in Hitsats camp, is very familiar with the situation faced by Eritrean refugees.

“Most of the people that we see in the camps have been through traumatizing experiences. Leaving Eritrea is dangerous, and some of them tried several times before succeeding. Many develop depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder linked to torture, violence, and abuse. These conditions have a very negative effect on their lives. Our mental health services can help them get back on their feet,” he says.

MSF offers counseling, inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care, and a wide range of therapeutic activities where patients can discuss what they are going through and receive detailed information about their conditions and how to overcome them. Realizing that other people are experiencing similar problems helps them feel less isolated.

As in most humanitarian settings, children are among the most vulnerable groups.

“Around 40 percent of the camp population is under 18. Half of them are traveling alone or have been separated from their families. Their situation is very delicate. They tend to suffer from separation anxiety, and in some cases they had difficult or confusing early sexual experiences. Here we have activities specifically designed for them, like sports, drawing, and theater sessions, as well as specialized counseling,” Robel Araya says.

Challenges to providing care

The population in the camps is quite transient. It is estimated that around 80 percent of Eritrean refugees will continue the journey through Sudan and towards Libya along the Central Mediterranean route within a year of their arrival in the Ethiopian camps. Harsh living conditions in the camps, the lack of future prospects, the desire to reunite with family members in other countries, and the average young age of the refugees all contribute to drive onward movement.

One of the main challenges is convincing people to seek support. The fear of being labeled as "weak" or "crazy" by the community prevents many from coming forward. “At first we encountered a lot of difficulties talking about mental health with refugees. So we decided to hire community mental health workers from the refugee community to provide door-to-door, culturally appropriate awareness-raising, education, and de-stigmatization of mental health,” he says.

Giving back to the refugee community

Every day, the community health workers go from shelter to shelter and explain how mental health issues manifest themselves, that treatment is available, and why it is important to seek help. These sessions usually involve a whole family at once, and are conducted in their native language. “Now we have a team of 26 very motivated community health workers. It helps that many of them are former patients and have experienced firsthand the benefits of counseling and treatment. Being Eritrean, they know how to properly address the topic with the rest of the camp’s population. Their commitment comes from wanting to help their community,” Robel Araya explains.

Simon* is one of MSF’s community health workers in Hitsats camp. Like other members of the team, he is an Eritrean refugee and a former patient. “When I first arrived in the camp, I was not doing well. I was constantly reliving all the things that I experienced when first trying to cross the border and while in jail, like the shooting, the torture, and the abuse. The counseling really helped me get my life back together, and I realized that this is something I could help other people with,” he says. “Working as a social worker in the MSF mental health program here in Hitsats camp is the only thing that gives me stability and motivation. Having a purpose has helped me to not think too much about further movements and the fact that I miss my family, my friends, and my home. A lot of people here suffer from trauma and mental health problems. When I see that they get better because of the support I provide through my work, I feel like staying here is worth it. Even if I didn’t manage to become a nurse like I dreamed in Eritrea, I am still able to help people and this makes me very happy,” Simon states proudly.

The ability to help other survivors of violence also motivates Hellen, a 30-year old mother who suffered rape and captivity in Sudan while trying to flee Eritrea. Now a refugee in Hitsats camp, she has seen her life improve considerably and she is able to take care of her children.

Hitsats and Shimelba refugee camps host respectively around 10,000 and 6,000 people. There, MSF provides around 2,800 individual counseling sessions and 3,600 psychiatric consultations per year. In addition to the mental health component, MSF offers primary and secondary healthcare services, including a 24/7 inpatient care in Hitsats refugee camp in partnership with the Ethiopian Administration for Refugee & Returnee Affairs (ARRA) and ambulance referral services for emergency patients to the nearby Shire hospital. Reproductive health awareness and HIV prevention are also provided at the community level.

*Name changed at the request of the interviewee to protect his identity.