Every child needs a safe playground to laugh, yell & scream with glee! They need people who lovingly hear and see them so they know they are deeply cherished and can live with a sense of hope.
Voice Movement Therapy (VMT) is a profound system that enables children the birthright to have their voices. A key fundamental of VMT is providing safe spaces where they can speak, sing or sound out what they think and feel without fear of punishment or abuse. Voicing is primary to how we communicate & try things out. It is how we develop confidence as human beings. If a child is neglected s/he is harmed for life.
The cries of the Asylum seekers and Refugees, and their children, on Nauru have been silenced! It is outrageous and infuriating for those working with and speaking out for them.
While many asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru have experienced trauma in their countries of origin, it is the Australian Governments policy of indefinite offshore detention that has destroyed their resilience, shattered all hope, and ultimately impacted their mental health.
Where is Nauru?
Nauru is an island country in Micronesia, in the Central Pacific. North of Papua New Guinea & Australia.
Release the kids
In a rare and forceful statement, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has detailed the “absolute devastation” Australia’s offshore detention policy has wrought on asylum seekers stuck on Nauru. MSF was forced by Nauru’s government to leave the island this week, after almost a year of providing psychological and psychiatric services to refugees, asylum seekers and local Nauruans. MSF is calling for the immediate evacuation of all refugees on Nauru.
Children suffering Traumatic Withdrawal Syndrome
Doctors kicked off Nauru tell of the dire state of asylum seekers trapped on the island.
“The mental conditions of asylum seekers & refugees trapped on Nauru is absolutely devastating. Many children suffering traumatic withdrawal syndrome exist in a semi comatose state unable to eat, drink or talk.’
‘The word I heard most often was destroyed. I heard it in their words and I saw it in their eyes.”
(The Guardian Australia 15 Oct 2018)
Voice Movement Therapy Oceania supports the rights of these children to be released from Nauru so they maybe truly protected, cared for and their voices heard.
RELEASE the Children from Nauru Island and give them a chance to live and BE kids!
For more Info: https://youtu.be/iq6KBcs6ONM
by Trish Watts
Registered Voice Movement Therapy Practitioner
Australia