Psychosocial Conditions Of Veteran Women With Disabilities in Tigray after the Reintegration to Civilian Life (with Particular Focus on the Case of Mekele City)
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Date
2010-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
After the overthrough of the former military regime, the government of Ethiopia demobilized various armed forces including veteran women with disabilities. Literature state that ex-combatants in societies in transition have faced with inevitable psychosocial challenges as they struggle with trauma of their violent past, Therefore, this study aims at investigating psychosocial conditions of veteran women with disabilities in Tigray after the reintegration to civilian life with particular focus on the case of Mekele city, The study has employed both quantitative and qualitative research methods in order to analyze and interpret the data. simple random sampling technique has been employed to 75 veteran women with disabilities and purposive sampling technique to the key informant from the service provider organization was
also implemented. In addition (0 that foc1l group discussion with 8 respondents has been conducted to confirm with finding of quantitative study. The findings of the study reveal that veteran women with disabilities have faced psychological,
social, and economic problems, Among the major problem, many of them are divorce , and fell they have a lack of opportunities in finding employment, as a result, they live in poverty.Furthermore, they are labeled and stigmatized as being cripples and in need of care The finding also indicates that the majority of veteran women with disabilities experience major psycho-social problem~ that remain largely neglected including depression, lowered elf-esteem, social
adjustment problem , and do not receive any counseling or psycho-social assistance prior to, during. or following the demobilization and reintegration phase, Although they have problems of forming meaningful social ties some of them are leading the way in building partnership. with the community in 'aqub' and 'idir' to raise public awareness and change misconception of them.
The study concludes that, since the unique psychological and social concern of the veteran women with disabilities are unaddressed: demobilization and reintegration efforts have been unsuccessful at least as far as their psycosocial situation is concerned. Therefore the study strongly recommends that understanding the different environmental factors affecting the psychosocial condition of the veteran women with disabilities, professionals in the area should design intervention strategies so that they could have better psycho-social well-being.
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With Particular Focus on the Case of Mekele City