Publication Exchange Project - Articles

Permanent URI for this collection

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1

Individual through community resilience in social reintegration of children associated with armed forces and groups
(Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2010-01) Veale, Angela; Dowdney, Linda
In “Trauma, resilience, healing-How do we move forward?” Dowdney (2007) utilised "resilience" as an integrative concept in the psychosocial field as it had the potential to bridge mental health and community-based approaches to social reintegration. Since then, empirical evidence on psychosocial adjustment and social reintegation has found that while the majority of former child soldiers are resilient and reintegrate successfully, there are those that do not. Youth perceived by community members to have been actively involved in killing experience more discrimination and less community acceptance (Betancourt et al, 2010), as also do those discriminated against for other reasons such as having returned home with "rebel" babies (McKay & Mazurana, 2004) or as a result of extreme poverty and being perceived as having nothing to offer. It remains a challenge in psychosocial practice as to how we can best support those who are experiencing major difficulties in social reintegration. This paper explores whether "resilience" can offer us a conceptual tool in the social reintegration of former child soldiers that continue to experience significant challenges.