There were two things that really stood out to Roswell's Dr. Vanessa Snyder during her time at the Moria refugee camp in Greece: how young the volunteers were and the gravity of experiences that landed these refugees so far from home.
Snyder is the director of the Institute of Traumatology at Richmont Graduate University, a faith-based graduate school with campuses in both Chattanooga and Atlanta.
Last month, she helped lead a team of trauma-trained Richmont students and therapists to refugee camps in Lesbos, Greece to respond to the needs of both refugees and relief volunteers.
When arriving at the camp, Snyder noticed the majority of the relief volunteers working with the highly traumatized population were right out of high school, around 23-24 years old.
"Research says individuals who help can't help but get secondary traumatic stress," Snyder told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
So, that become one of the major goals and successes of the 10-day program.
The other goal, to provide counsel for refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, the North African region and even the Dominican Republic, was especially challenging due to a multitude of language barriers.
But even with limited interpretors, they were still able to speak with some of the individuals, allow them to tell their stories and share their heartache.
"The refugees had this gratefulness just for someone to hear what happened," Snyder said.
The Richmont group's trauma team has trainings in Chattanooga and in Atlanta throughout the year for anyone who may be interested in getting trained as part of a trauma team abroad or with first responders.
MORE NEWS:
- Georgians travel to the front lines of Syrian refugee crisis
- Syrian refugee family arrives in Georgia after governor backtracks
- Syrian civil war refugees now resettling in Atlanta and Savannah areas
- Why Georgia is powerless to stop the resettlement of Syrian refugees
- Photos: Syrian families get a warm welcome in Georgia
- How Syrian refugees get to come to America
- MORE ROSWELL NEWS
About the Author
