The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) trains peer counselors to provide mental health services to refugees in Guinea and Sierra Leone.  With more than 300,000 refugees from Sierra Leone and more than 100,000 refugees from Liberia, staff and resources were far too limited to meet the needs of those who could benefit from mental health services in the refugee camps.  As a result, CVT began training of refugees themselves as peer counselors—or Psychosocial Agents (PSAs). Over 120 para-professionals have been trained through this approach.

For a detailed exploration of this tactic, please click on the following link to consult our tactical notebook, <b><a href="http://www.newtactics.org/en/RebuildingCommunities">Rebuilding Communities</a></b> by Binta Barry and Nancy L. Pearson.

Tactic Information

Intervention type: 

Building Human Rights Cultures and Institutions - Building capacity

Objective: 

To build local and long-term capacity building within communities to address massive human rights atrocities

Sector initiating tactic: 

Civil society

Sector intended to affect: 

Civil society