Colombia: children tell their secrets through drawings.

What do these drawings represent?

They represent their lives. Many of these drawings have been painted by the displaced children we see. You can see all the drawings show nature, the countryside, where they come from. They show what their lives were like and the break representing their displacement.

Among all the cases youíve seen, does any one in particular stand out?

Yes. I remember most the children who have seen their parents killed. It is difficult for them to resolve because the grief is so violent. They had to witness something at an age that doesnít have the maturity or the development necessary to overcome it.

Other cases that impact me strongly are the children who continue to be threatened while they are displaced and have been abused sexually. This happened to a boy I saw recently who is only 11 years old.

How does a child express this horror?

Itís difficult to get children to verbalize their emotions. You can facilitate their emotional expression through drawing or art. Even if itís not possible to get out everything they have inside in a drawing, painting helps to diminish their initial resistance so they can speak about it later.

What kind of treatment and follow-up care do you give these children? It must be very difficult to keep treating a child who has seen the death of his parents.

There are many different techniques to work with trauma and they have different guidelines. Some are deconstructive and others are constructive. For example, you teach them to use metaphors to make a comparison with reality, creating a parallel fiction where they can tell the truth about what happened. Little by little, they go back to that reality through the narrative technique of telling the story in first person, as if they were the main character in a story, what is in fact their own lives. In this way, they are the center of the story. It helps them move past the traumatic experience to rebuild their lives. Cognitive, emotional and behavioral aspects are all involved. Itís a very integrated technique.

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