I n s t i t u t e fo r j us t i ce a n d r eco n ci l iat i o n a fr i c a pr o g r a m m e Psychosocial needs According to Eppel (2008) traumatic situations are those in which a person is rendered powerless in the face of great danger. Trauma is a response to an event that overwhelms an individual’s coping resources, making it difficult for him or her to function effectively in society. It generally manifests in heightened levels of anxiety, distress and loneliness, and other somatic symptoms (Hayner, 2001). Thus, when left unattended, such symptoms can lead to serious mental disorders or even death. In this paper, the term trauma is used to include events experienced by women during the political violence that occurred between 2000 and 2008. Because this trauma was highly political, it is important to stress the cultural, political and social context in which the trauma was embedded. In other words, cultural and environmental systems mediate human experience and can provide resources that either help people to cope, or deny and exacerbate their suffering (Boss, 2006). Respondents in this study stated that trauma has overtaxed their own personal resources and those of their communities, thereby destroying both individuals and the collective structures of society. One survivor narrated her ordeal at the hands of the youth militias. They abducted her and physically assaulted her many times using batons before gang-raping her in front of her eight-year old son, claiming that she was a ‘sell out’. Her traumatic experience typifies the stories of many women who experienced horrendous and politically motivated sexual violence. What needs to be healed, therefore, is a multitude of individual, political, social and cultural traumas. As Eppel (2008) argues, a variety of psychotherapeutic methods will need to be harnessed, using not only western models but also cross-cultural and collectivehealing therapies. The women’s narratives collected during this study show that, as a post-conflict society, Zimbabwe has a clear need to confront trauma as a support mechanism for healing and reconciliation. As Summerfield (1996) points out, societies caught up in long-term conflict can undergo serious changes as a result of extended exposure to political violence. New social patterns, such as widespread prostitution, rape and domestic violence may emerge. Violence can also reinforce a sense of group identity and victimisation, and can encourage the emergence of markers of group identity, expressed through dress, language and social practices such as spirituality and prayer. Women respondents in this study felt that the horrendous sexual exploitation they were subjected to had left indelible marks upon their individual and group consciousnesses, marking their memories forever and changing their identities in fundamental and irrevocable ways. Spirituality and prayer were mentioned by respondents as strategies used by female victims to cope with their situations. One woman recounted: I usually feel sad and start crying as a way of taking away my pain. I pray daily for my health although at times I experience feelings of anger, revenge for the perpetrators and resentment and ask why God allowed such things to happen to me. (Interview, 3 June 2011) Women in the study also expressed fears about confrontations with their abusers, noting that this affects them psychologically and can endanger the recovery process. One rape survivor lamented: If you have been sexually assaulted or raped the worst thing you could do is to say I could face my rapist. How could you think straight when the person who had instilled so much fear in you is staring at you with a dead cold look. All of that would come 14 IJR Zimbabwe Womens needs OP proof 2.indd 14 7/16/2012 11:01:31 AM