Charity Foundation Supports Training of Priests in Sierra Leone in Trauma Healing Post War

Recounting how he struggled with sleep, a situation that was manifest one day when he had traveled to New York to advocate before the United Nations for an intervention in his country’s civil war.

He told ACN he was in bed, asleep, when he first heard the explosions. Jumping to his feet he called out to the other priest in the house to get up and run. “The rebels are coming from the east!” he said, “we must escape”.

“I was shouting terribly, but the other priest turned to me and told me to calm down, that I was no longer in Sierra Leone, but in the USA,” the Priest said, and added, “What I was hearing were fireworks for the 4 July celebrations. That was when I realized that I was traumatized as well.” 

The Priest who also serves as the Executive Director of Caritas in the Archdiocese of Freetown described the Sierra Leonean civil was as having been a “very senseless war, about greed”, as armed rebels tried to capture valuable natural resources, including diamond mines.

A few months after the conflict had begun, the population was asked to participate in a referendum. They were asked to choose between ending the war and electing their national leaders. “The people preferred to have elections before peace, so that following elections, a new government could negotiate with the rebels.”

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Unfortunately, things did not work out as planned. Rebels took to cutting off the hands of civilians to prevent them from being able to participate in elections, and before these could be held, the army seized power in a coup.

 Over the 11-year conflict tens of thousands of people were killed, with countless others raped, mutilated or forced, even as children, to inflict these atrocities against their countrymen.

Fr. Konteh told ACN that during the war and later crises, the Church became “the voice of the voiceless” and a fearless advocate for victims of all social or religious groups. 

“The Church became a hub for social services, and even Muslims came to the Church in those times. We had a lot of conversions because people trusted the Church. We not only gave them bread to eat, but we could advocate for them,” he said, adding that relations between religions were already exemplary in Sierra Leone, where 40 percent of the priests are former Muslims who converted, many of whom while attending Christian schools. 

He said that at the moment, the Church in Sierra Leone has decided to take on the issue of trauma, to help the people through their healing processes.