Washington, DC — The drawings displayed here were made by the children of the Child Rescue Center in Bo, Sierra Leone, during a medical psychological mission team visit organized by the United Methodist Church shortly after peace was declared in January 2002.

The children of the CRC are made up of children taken from the streets of Bo. Many have lost both parents, some still have relatives that cannot afford to support them and they were left to fend for themselves in the streets.

In the short time we were with them we only began to hear their stories. The drawing exercise we did quickly opened a window to the horror they had experienced.

Drawing, art, and other creative therapies are frequently used in trauma work with children who may not have the verbal skills to convey their stories. After seeing work done with the child survivors of the Rwanda Genocide (Witness to Genocide: The Children of Rwanda - Drawings by Child Survivors of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, Richard A. Salem, Editor) and being recently trained in EMDR(Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing - a technique used to detoxify some of the intense emotions generated by trauma) we decided to do a drawing exercise with the children.

We discussed the project with the staff and secured their permission and agreement to work as interpreters and facilitators. The children were divided into two groups due to the size of the classroom. The first group consisted of mostly the boys and several of the girls and the second group was entirely girls.

The groups were divided, four to a table and they were given one piece of white computer paper and one box of colored pencils (This was their first use of these supplies that had been shipped on a previously sent container).

We explained through the staff that the exercise was voluntary and that they could decline or stop at any time. We warned them that it might stir up their feelings and that if it did they should talk to us or the house mothers afterward. Only two of the children choose not to participate.

Before they drew we taught them a technique called the butterfly hug which is a way of self-administering alternating bilateral tactile stimulation, which has been found to have a soothing processing effect much like alternating eye movements.

The children were then instructed to "draw a picture of something bad that happened to you that still bothers you." After the drawing the children used the butterfly hug to process the feelings that looking at the picture generated.

They then were instructed to draw the same picture on the opposite side of the paper but to transform it into a happy ending. This was to be used in an "installation process" with the butterfly hug that would further detoxify the experience but the children either did not understand the instruction, or perhaps more likely, they could not imagine a happy ending to their trauma. Instead they almost uniformly drew their current happy ending, their life at the CRC.

The drawings they produced are shocking in their graphic brutality. 50% show acts of horrendous violence, shootings, dismemberment, burnings, garroting, even decapitation.

This, however, maybe only the tip of the iceberg, showing only their most organized memories. Some even include narration, "The Rabal [rebel] killed my family." Particularly striking is that, though the instruction asked them to draw something bad, most included multiple acts of horror.

We secured the permission of the children and their guardians at the CRC to show them to our congregation and other people so that the world can begin to understand what they have experienced. Several examples follow. These have had identifying characteristics removed to maintain individual confidentiality.

Please note that they are not suitable for children. Isn't that a heartbreaking paradox? Drawings made by children are too horrible for children who live in peaceful, secure conditions to see.

Note:

The CRC provides for 40 residential children and 100 foster care children, and provides health care and trauma counseling for the children and the community of Bo.

The Child Rescue Center is supported by Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon Virginia, U.S.A.

The CRC needs help with operating expenses, facilities expansion and renovation, and trauma recovery program development. We are interested in developing relationships with granting agencies/foundations, and networking with medical and mental health organizations and universities. More information can be found at http://childrescue.homestead.com/home.html.

Individuals and groups can make tax-free donations to the CRC through the U.S. fiscal sponsor listed below.

Child Rescue Centre

c/o Floris UMC

2730 Centreville Rd.

Herndon, VA 20171