City Vision (Western Cape, South Africa), November 9, 2006
Summary:
The sixteen ex-combatants and community activists trained by the Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory (DACPM) in storytelling to become authentic voices in the tourist industry, graduated in Woodstock on Monday.
During the course which took nine weeks, the graduates took a part on doing research on the psychological effects of war and conflict on the lives of ex-political prisoners, torture survivors and former combatants and their families.
The DACPM is a non-governmental peace activist and human rights organisation which was formed to face the manifold challenges that the political activists had to face in adapting to country’s hard-won peace, social and psychological alienation, post-traumatic stress, economic deprivation and chronic unemployment.
The aim of each programme is to awaken in people their own wisdom, strengths, resources and social responsibility, which challenges the participants to face hidden stories, histories and realities of the context within which they are living and acting in their everyday lives.
Subjects Covered: education, healing, personal storytelling