WCI Chair Supriti Dhar and Board of Directors Member Wiola Rebecka has recently completed a four-day-long visit to Kosovo to commemorate the occasion of The Kosova Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims: KRCT‘s 22nd Anniversary and to attend a conference on “Transgenerational Trauma: Evidence-based research on transgenerational trauma, the psychological and social impact of the trauma” organized by UBT where Wiola Rebecka participated as a panellist.
During their visit, they promoted Rebecka’s book “Rape: A History of Shame. Diary of the Survivors” and met with the Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti and the British Ambassador to Kosovo Nicholas Abbott, among others.
During the Four-day-long visit, Supriti Dhar and Wiola Rebecka Visited the Kosovo Center for the Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors (QKRMT), met with its founder and Executive Director Dr. Feride Rushiti, got to visit and gain firsthand knowledge regarding many of the center’s activities and shared ideas with the staff so that the knowledge may help in creating a long-term working relationship between QKRMT and WCI. Among other projects, QKRCT has been working with war rape survivors in order to help heal their trauma and assist them in their rehabilitation process. It was the 22nd anniversary of the organization, so it was a great opportunity to meet not only with the directors but with its beneficiaries as well. The visit was a significant step towards developing a future plan for reducing discriminative practice through collective efforts.
On October 13th, 2021, as part of the 22nd Anniversary of the QKRMT, there was a presentation at the centre on Wiola Rebecka’s book, “Rape: A History of Shame. Diary of the Survivors”. The event was attended by the Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti and the British Ambassador to Kosovo Nicholas Abbott, among others.
Dr. Rushiti said, “With this book, Wiola Rebecka, being the descendant of a Holocaust survivor and rape during World War II, brings the consequences-traumas between generations, which are passed on to generations of war victims.” She said that the Kosovar history of war survivors has also been revealed through this book. The Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti stressed that Wiola Rebecka’s book is as important as it is special.
Shyhrete Tahiti-Suleimani, a survivor of violence during the war in Kosovo, thanked the QKRCT and said, “I do not feel ashamed of what I experienced during the war. The more I spoke about surviving the torture of the war, the stronger my conviction grew that I should not stop, be ashamed of what (had happened to me), and that I should not be afraid.”
Wiola Rebecka said that the pain and trauma of victims of violence are transmitted to the generation of victims. “During my career, I have collected more than 200 testimonies of war victims from around the world,” she said, citing the violence experienced by her grandmother during World War II by the Nazis and the Soviets. During this promotion, a debate was held on the consequences and treatment of war survivors.
On October 14th, 2021 the Kosovo Center for Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors and the Faculty of Psychology at UBT organized a conference on “Transgenerational Trauma: Evidence-based research on transgenerational trauma, the psychological and social impact of the trauma”. The major participants of the conference were the rector of UBT, Professor Dr. Edmond Hajrizi, Executive Director of the Kosovo Center for the Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors, Feride Rushiti, Psychoanalyst, Wiola Rebecka, Researcher at the Danish Institute against Torture “DIGNITY”, Sharlen Wang, Associate Professor of Traumatology and Social Psychology and Blerina Kellezi, leader of the trauma research group, social isolation and mental health at Nottingham Trent University.
Fact-based research on intergenerational trauma, the psychological and social impact of trauma, where well-known professors and psychology professionals discussed and exchanged views on this issue, and this research was presented at this conference.
Leave a Reply