Dr Rob Watson interviewed me as part of Leicester Stories series #BuildBackBetter in July 2021. Prior to the interview, he sent me few questions for me to prepare the interview and start thinking about what it means to Build Back Better post-pandemic. In the following post, I answer one of the questions augmented after reflecting upon the interview
R: I’d like to know what conversations and discussions people living and working in Leicester had during the lockdown, especially when these conversations started to focus on the idea of Building Back Better?
Through the lockdown, my discussion were upon the tools available to people to support their mental health and connections with others. In a trauma-informed programme, the first steps are stabilisation and regulation. In other words, if someone is in a state of shock, the first step is to ground them and help them manage their emotions. In our community, we experienced first hand what it is to be in a state of shock during the pandemic having experienced a health scare. Thankfully, we had access to alternative healing practices as well therapeutic and clinical support through this experience. We did everything in my power to navigate trauma and grow from it. This is not true for the everyone during the pandemic. At Quetzal, we did our best by providing counselling support remotely to female survivors. Many could not access it as they did not have the privacy within their home to receive the support they so much need it.
During the lockdown, I also had long conversation with Kajal Nisha Patel about what is to build trauma-informed communities, what are the tools, skills and abilities one need to acquire and more. Through the discussion, we eventually built a project called - Ways to Wellbeing - a 9 online session programme - to equip communities with the tools to take care of their wellbeing which we delivered in May 2021.
Another important conversation during the lockdown was how do we pass information when the access to the most low tech technology is limited. How do I create connections when I cannot visit people and speak to them directly. My uncle Emile Biti Abi fascinated by the Malian Empire told me that if we wanted to get information to reach Rome, we could just by using word of mouth. Sharing information with others is the most noble and caring things one can give to others, we do not need need high technology for this. Thankfully, community radios, social media and the telephone were accessible and we made the most of it.