Levarage Counselling Network (LCN) provides free Counselling Support & Donations to victims of the Akosombo Dam Spillage

Levarage Counselling Network (LCN) provides free Counselling Support & Donations to victims of the Akosombo Dam Spillage

In the aftermath of the spillage from the Akosombo Dam, the Executive Director of Leverage Counselling Network (LCN) and Leverage Aid, Rev. Dr. Mrs. Edem Sokpor together with the Senior Partner of Deon & Noed International (DNl), Rev. Dr. Chris Sokpor, led a team to provide free counselling and donations to the victims of the flood in affected communities in the North Tongu Constituency. Due to the potential traumatic effect of the dam spillage on the people who from media reports, have lost their livelihoods and homes, management of the three entities thought it wise to move swiftly to one of the camps in the affected areas; Sikor, to offer free counselling services and donations as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Upon arrival, the team was warmly welcomed by the MP for the area, Honourable Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and one of the Queen Mothers in the area. After a brief introduction, Honourable Ablakwa led the team to one of the twenty-one camps dotted around his constituency, each camp accommodating approximately a thousand people. According to the MP, members of this particular camp, which is located on the compound of a basic school, were made up of citizens of five different communities. Due to the numbers, tents were mounted on the school compound to ease the congestion in the classrooms turned dormitories.

After a brief welcome by the local Chiefs and the Assembly Man, the MP took the stage and informed the people that, psychological counselling is priceless and that the people should take advantage of the team’s presence and pour out their hearts to the professional counsellors. The MP stated that “Leverage Counselling Network was the first to have offered such intervention and added that, crisis situations of this magnitude without counselling, is a silent killer”. He therefore went on to encouraged victims to share their anxieties and fears with the team who are professionals and obligated by the ethics of the profession not to disclose anything anyone confides in them, even if it about him; the MP or the Assembly Man whose actions or inactions might have hurt them. In response to the welcome, Rev. Dr. Chris Sokpor reiterated the importance of counselling in traumatic situations and reassured the people of confidentiality. Rev. Dr. Mrs. Edem Sokpor also re-emphasized the significance of counselling in challenging times and encouraged the people to open up and share their pains.

The counselling sessions commenced with a larger group session led by Rev. Dr. Mrs. Edem Sokpor, which lasted for approximately one and a half hours. This group was later broken into males and females to enable a one-on-one session which ran concurrently for over three hours with Rev. Dr. Chris Sokpor, Rev. Dr. Mrs. Edem Sokpor, Rev. Cynthia Kpelle and other team members. The gender-based approach was to encourage easy interaction, where male members of the team spoke to the male victims and female members took care of the female victims. Issues that came up in both male and female sessions included feelings of fear, depression, sleepless nights, high blood pressure, headaches, etc. The victims worried a lot about the loss of their homes, livelihoods, investments, businesses, and how to pay back loans they had contracted, as well as pay their children’s school fees to get them back to school. There were confessions of attempted suicides as a result of depression, hopelessness and helplessness. However, after the counselling sessions, victims confirmed feeling emotionally healed, thankful for the gift of life and hopeful for what the future has to offer. After the counselling session, the team donated some food items and toiletries to support the victims. The team also took the opportunity to drive towards areas (including Mepe) that were still under the water even though the water had started receding. There were still visible signs of the devastating effect of the water spillage, showing at the window levels of some buildings in the township, as well as collapsed buildings that could not withstand the spillage. In total, three hundred and forty-three (343) victims were counselled. Two hundred and seventy-four (274) of the counselees were females and sixty-nine (69) were males. On the whole, the victims expressed great appreciation for the opportunity to be healed emotionally and psychologically through counselling after the traumatic experience.