Page Updated: 26-Jun-2007
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Hope and Support for Victims of Terrorist Attacks – Using the NATO Virtual SILK Highway

Networking Infrastructure Grant - NIG 982690

Period 2006-2008 Co-Directors Dr. Daphna Slonim Los Angeles, USA slonid31@bigplanet.com Jasenka Pregrad Zagreb jasenka.pregrad@ st.htnet.hr Key links Virtual Silk Highway News Articles 23 March 2007 Support for victims of terrorist attacks and trauma: an Advanced Research Workshop

The NATO-funded Virtual SILK Highway brings global Internet connectivity to the Caucasus and Central Asia through state-of-the-art satellite technology. A NATO SPS Project has been approved to create an interactive forum for use by psychologists to provide help and support to victims of terrorist attacks in the SILK countries network of Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan , Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and NATO Partner countries Belarus, Croatia and Moldova.

This US-Croatia Project will harness the knowledge, methods and practice from the NGO Community Stress Prevention Center (CSPC), and was founded in 1980 and since then has trained thousands of professionals in the resilience model “BASIC Ph” and other techniques that develop coping skills for individuals, family groups and communities that have been subjected to trauma.

The main objectives of this 2-year project are:

• To create an internet portal on the SILK network, through which psychologists, social workers and doctors in any of the 11 countries can receive guidance on dealing with crisis, disaster, and trauma resulting from terrorism. This bilingual (English, Russian) “first aid” portal will give each participating clinic access to immediate information and within 24 hours of a disaster, professional on-line support to meet the local needs of the affected community.

• Establish Local Trauma Prevention Centers (LTPC) in each of the 11 countries. Each LTPC will be trained through an e-learning platform. The software will be developed mainly in Israel, with input from the participating psychology professors and psychotherapists in each of the 11 participating countries. The SILK NRENs will maintain the portals and guarantee the internet connectivity to the local clinics.
  

The mechanisms to enable the successful completion of this project are as follows:

• An Advanced Research Workshop, which took place in March 2007, to enable the participants from the 11 SILK countries to discuss the needs of their local communities in response to a trauma. The outcomes of this workshop will be analysed by experts from the Community Stress Prevention Centre and used to define the optimal content for the e-learning platforms.

• Determine the content and design for bilingual programme content for coping with psychological and social aspects of trauma or terrorist attacks based on analysis from the workshop.

• Organise and run a 2-week Advanced Study Institute to discuss latest findings and CSPC methods and practice.

• Using the outcomes of both the ARW and the ASI progress with specifications for the development of two e-learning units with content focused on coping with the effects of terrorism on the individual and the community; and first responders in disasters, crisis and trauma.

• Develop the bilingual internet content programme for dealing with the psychological and social implications of trauma as the result of terror/crisis/disaster. Additional languages will be developed at a later stage.

• Develop an internet step-by-step guide for psychologists and social worked on how to create support methods, operate and first respond in disaster and teach LTPC to treat the population.

• Develop an internet forum to support psychological and social aspects of trauma implications – discussions, new methods, articles and CSPC experience.

• Create a bilingual internet forum for first responders in terms of psychological/social aid in cases of trauma, attack, disaster. The forum will make use of videoconferencing and SILK telecommunication infrastructure.

All of the above stages will be supported by maintenance and modifications and appropriate training will be given to staff of the LTPCs to enable them to make changes themselves.

Upon the successful completion of this project, the SILK community will serve as providers of virtual support and advice to members in areas that have been hit by disasters. They will operate as a network of hope and support to areas otherwise disconnected from the knowledge and skills necessary to mitigate and cope with the consequences of terrorism and disasters.

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