In collaboration with the Supportive Activists Foundation, IOM deployed a mobile psychosocial team – consisting of a psychologist, two social workers, an educator, and a community mobilizer – to provide direct services to the affected populations. Recognizing the significant impact of the conflict on the well-being of displaced persons, the International Organization for Migration ( IOM) mobilized its expertise in providing mental health and psychosocial support. Raising awareness of post-traumatic stress Fatou left her home behind with nothing but her family and the clothes on her back. Many Gambians living in Senegal have also been affected. Kaddy is among thousands of Senegalese forced to flee to The Gambia, according to the country’s National Disaster Management Agency, after fighting broke out along the Gambian-Senegalese border, in territory occupied by the separatist Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC). “We feel ashamed to be ‘taken care of’, but we have no choice.” “We feel like a burden to the other communities helping us,” Kaddy laments. Having left with nothing, Kaddy and her family had to rely on the hospitality of the local community for food and shelter. Together with her husband and seven children, Kaddy fled north to The Gambia, eventually finding her way to a small village in Janack district, in an area popularly known as ‘Foni’. Our animals, our food everything was destroyed in the fighting.” When we left, we could not take anything with us. When conflict broke out in Kaddy’s Senegalese village in early April, she was forced to leave her belongings behind to save her family.

Quicksilver courier