Health

Manyu Division: PCC Mental Health Unit succours Egbekaw Amba attack survivors.

Victims & some members of mental health unit

The Mental Health Unit of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, PCC, has succoured survivors of the November 6, 2023, Amba attack in Egbekaw village in Mamfe Central Subdivision, Manyu Division of the South West Region.
This was during a visit Friday 15 March, to the survivors, mostly women and children, who are living in Mamfe town under dire situations, as Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs.

The PCC Mental Health Unit team visited the survivors and offered them training and psychosocial support.

The survivors were also offered group therapy, trained on skills to enable them uphold their lives.

They were also donated a consignment of relief materials comprising food and non-food items such as bags of rice, bags of salt, mattrasses, among others.

The PCC Mental Health Unit team encouraged the survivors to let go of the past and move on with their lives while giving thanks to God for surviving the deadly attack.

The Head of the PCC Mental Health Unit, Rev Perpetua Fonki, said: “We had group therapy with the victims, visiting their homes, providing them with food and non-food items to bring hope to their lives”.

Survivors recount ordeal

The Amba attack, which occurred during the early hours of November 6, 2023, it should be recalled, led to the death of over 20 persons and massive destruction of property.

The attack also rendered many in the community traumatised and homeless as many houses were set ablaze by the armed men.

Most of the survivors used the visit of the PCC Mental Health Unit team to recount their ordeal and traumatic experience during the attack.

A survival who spoke on condition of anonymity, recounted that: “…as I was trying to hide with my children, they broke the door, killed my husband and five other people in front of my kids and I. They tore my cloths leaving me naked”.

After recounting their ordeals and receiving psychosocial support from PCC Mental Health Unit team, the survivors expressed relief.

Some said they hope to overcome the fear and trauma inflicted on them during the incident and continue with their lives.

“…with what happened to us, we had given up that we can’t survive. We are grateful for the items given to us,” a survivor said, adding that the gifts will help improve on their living conditions.

“We slept on the floor for long but thank God it has ended today,” a survivor said, while expressing gratitude to their benefactors.

In order to ensure continuation of the support, the PCC Mental Health Unit team also trained stakeholders and 17 pastors in Mamfe Presbytery on mental health.

The training, it should be said, is jointly sponsored by the PCC and the Methodist Church of Britain.