VOT Report: October 2004 through March 2005

The Victims of Torture Project:

Helping the Victims of the Khmer Rouge

Semester Report: October 2004 through March 2005

Reports and Evaluation. We have recently written the annual report for the project’s first year and posted it on DC-Cam’s homepage. We are also planning for the completion of all project reports and the editing of three TPO-Cambodia progress reports submitted to DC-Cam. These will be posted on our homepage as well.

At the end of this two-year project, we will ask overseas experts to evaluate the results of the project’s overall activities (both for DC-Cam and TPO-Cambodia). This evaluation will probably take the form of a research paper of about 200 pages in length.

Counseling and Treatment. TPO-Cambodia has offered counseling services since 1997 and has helped more than 1,250 people to date. Prior to delivering counseling and treatment services to the VOT project’s clients, TPO-Cambodia assesses each proposed client’s mental health status, level of functioning, and level of distress. Medical treatment is provided only to those with serious mental health disorders, while individual and group counseling is provided to those referred by DC-Cam and wish to receive these services.

This semester, DC-Cam project staff accompanied TPO-Cambodia staff on 9 trips to the field to deliver counseling and treatment in Kandal, Takeo and Kampot provinces. TPO-Cambodia provided 5 sessions of group and individual counseling and treatment in Kandal and Takeo (12 sessions are anticipated over the life of the project) and 2 of individual counseling and treatment in Kampot (6 are anticipated in total).

Table 1. First Semester, Year Two Results: Summary of Activities

1.2     Staff Training and Conferences

             1.2.1     TPO Local Training and Conferences

In February, our staff attended two local conferences organized by TPO-Cambodia. On February 9, one staff member attended a one-day conference on the “Efficacy and Cost-Effectiveness of Mental Health Care in Cambodia,” which was held at the Himawari Hotel and sponsored by the Inter-Church Cooperation Agency. On February 16, two VOT project representatives from DC-Cam attended a conference at the Juliana Hotel on “Empowering the Community through Mental Health and Psychosocial Rehabilitation – the Achievements of TPO-Cambodia in Kampong Thom Province,” which was sponsored by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency. We anticipate that TPO-Cambodia will organize additional conferences and training events for our staff members this year.

            1.2.2     Overseas Training and Conference

Two of our project staff members – Dr. Sotheara Chhim of TPO-Cambodia and Mr. Sophearith Choung of DC-Cam – will attend a five-day conference on “Psychiatry in a Changing World” at the Sydney, Australia Convention and Exhibition Centre from May 22-26. The two men will present a joint paper on the project’s activities.

In addition, we anticipate that one VOT staff member will also attend training on health and human rights at Boston University, USA, from June 20-23.

1.3     Field Interviews

In the beginning of 2005 we developed a questionnaire on survivors’ views on justice and reconciliation. We categorized our questions in five parts: Khmer Rouge leaders, the tribunal, reconciliation, revenge, trauma healing, and preserving the history of Democratic Kampuchea. We developed this questionnaire to improve the quality of our interviews and to collect as much information on justice and reconciliation as possible.

During this semester, VOT project staff members conducted 19 field trips to Kandal, Takeo and Kampot provinces. Seven of the trips were made for DC-Cam field interviews and 12 for field observations and to assist TPO-Cambodia staff during counseling and treatment.

            1.3.1     DC-Cam Interviews

During this semester, we completed 7 field trips (2 trips to Kandal, 2 to Takeo and 3 to Kampot provinces) over 34 days. As a result, we interviewed 86 people, of which 29 were identified as PTSD victims. Of these, 26 were women.

Table 2. Interviews and PTSD Victims

October 2004. Table 3 shows the results of our trip to Kandal province from October 24-28, 2004.

Table 3. October Interviews and PTSD Victims

November 2004. Table 4 shows the results of our trip to Takeo province from November 19-23, 2004.

Table 4. November Interviews and PTSD Victims

December 2004. Table 5 shows the results of our two trips to Kampot province from December 14-18 and 25-29, 2004.

Table 5. December Interviews and PTSD Victims

January 2005. Our trip results to Takeo province from January 24-28, 2005 are summarized in Table 6.

Table 6. January Interviews and PTSD Victims

February 2005. Table 7 summarizes the results of our February 2-5, 2005 trip to Kandal province.

Table 7. February Interviews and PTSD Victims