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This story was produced in collaboration with SBS Arabic.
TRANSCRIPT
Calls are coming in from refugees distressed by violence.
Zikra Al-Nuzaili is among those specially trained to listen.
“Most of the cases, who are women, are experiencing a kind of panic and fear, a longing for a community that listens to them.”
Ms Al-Nuzaili is part of a highly trained team at Sydney-based not-for-profit STARTTS, set up to help survivors of torture and trauma.
CEO Jorge Aroche says the Witness to War hotline supports refugees who’ve fled violence in places like Iran, Gaza and Ukraine.
“The last few years have been horrific from, you know, a human rights point of view with multiple crises around the world. What Witness to War has been set up to do is to provide an avenue for people to be able to share those experiences, often in their language, which is critically important to them, but also with someone who can understand.”
Among recipients is Mona Galal, originally from Syria, who remains haunted by violent memories.
“I was at my wedding, and then there were bombs and bombs and everything. People were running away on the street, others had their heads cut off.”
Others grateful for the hotline service include Ghada Farahat, a Palestinian who later sought refuge in Syria.
“We went into the elevator, and a plane hit the elevator shaft on us. So, to this day, I don't go in elevators, I am scared.”
For many like Mona Galal, violent events like the Bondi Beach terror attack reignite fear and anxiety.
“You become afraid when you see these scenes. You feel there is no safety. You have lost safety, you feel terrified.“
Thanks to extra funding, the Witness to War hotline can now support more refugees in cities and towns nationwide.
STARTTS CEO Jorge Aroche explains.
“The service is particularly important for the increasing number of refugees that have settled in rural and regional areas in Australia and therefore have even less access to people that can assist them in their own language and understand their experiences. It’s really fulfilling a very palpable and important need in society.”
A clinical psychologist, Mr Aroche says the hotline receives more than 100 calls each week and offers support in six languages, with the option of an interpreter.
Ms Farahat is among those grateful for the connection.
“When I'm upset, for example, I call the hotline and they help me a lot. I feel like they're my family, I feel reassured.”
Set up in 2023, the free hotline has so far responded to 5,000 calls.
Mr Aroche expects more refugees to reach out.
“Trauma really affects us, you know, at core of our being. And so being able to speak about it in our own language really opens, you know, a different kind of window into our soul, into our very being.”
Trauma expert Professor Rees from the University of New South Wales is studying the mental health impacts of global conflict.
“Evidence suggests that the number of people needing support is definitely increasing and when you have that ongoing kind of one event after another after another, this is having a compounding mental health impact. So, things like intrusive memories and nightmares, sleep disturbances and avoidance and hyper arousal symptoms. They just feel like their functioning isn't like it was, they're distracted, they're thinking too much about what's going on over there and it's interfering with their day-to-day life here.”
Professor Rees is calling for broader mental health support for those affected by mass trauma events, like the Bondi Beach attack.
“There needs to be a holistic, comprehensive approach to guiding Australia's response so that there's continuity and consistency and that's looking really understanding people's histories and cultures and backgrounds and histories of trauma as well so that those responses are as effective as they can be.”
As global conflict grinds on, Mona Jalal is among those grateful for support in her language and offers this wish to the world.
"We don't want anyone to die, whether Jewish or Muslim. In the end, we are all children of Adam and Eve."
