Memory Work

With an estimated 14 million children globally who have lost one or both parents due to HIV/AIDS and other factors, the challenge of care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) left behind is huge. To quote Meble, a teammate in Kenya, “children appear to be slipping through social safety nets or places of security, love and belonging, ending up in households with no resident adult, or as children living on the streets and silently be exploited, trafficked or abused. There is concern that there children might come to constitute a ‘lost generation’ of young people who have been marginalized and excluded for much of their lives”.

The African Regional Team have been doing a lot of Psycho-Social Support (PSS) with OVC’s, particularly through Youth Capacity Development, which originally emerged out of concerns related to future leadership in Africa. YCD is an important recognition that as the adults are hit hardest by HIV/AIDS, the youth have immense capacity to respond, care and support OVC’s. And it seems the same situation in Papua New Guinea is emerging. As HIV/AIDS infections continue to rise at a rapid pace, family structures are breaking down under stress and the numbers of street children is rising. And the youth want to respond.

(Adventure Based Learning at Masiye Camp - Zimbabwe)

One of the ways that the African teams are responding is through ‘Memory Work’ and it has really got me thinking lately, so….I thought I would share. (A big thanks goes out to Meble too!)

Memory Work
This is a key element in the concept of Psychosocial Support that strengthens family bonds, but also provides a chance for mourning, and dealing with the losses associated with death of a close relative, especially to children. A process of capturing family backgrounds and links through the memory box, gathering special items that remind you of family, traditions, ties, ongoing traditions, key things that stood out for family or communities. Story telling as facilitated by different generations, community time-lines, mapping out of experiences, memory boxes, writing letters and keeping them as memories, all contribute to reducing the long-term trend of incompetence and undealt with emotions for generations to come. The idea of memory linking to strengthening relationships between sick parents and their children, preparation for responsibility but also being aware of the roots and origin that adds value to family relationships. Memory work in this sense goes beyond children but for communities, and families to remember experiences that have stood out, activities, celebrations, events and changes in the weather and practices related to natural disasters. People that were present, significant behaviors of well known leaders, but also memories on moments for care and change in the communities. Memory keeping practices, then preserves communities’ memories and a transfer of knowledge, skills and information between the generations; to support children in expressing their feelings associated with grief.

A significant role for memory work is for facilitating and stimulating sick parents to talk to their children, in preparation for future through past experiences and finding pathways for parents and children to talk about issues within the household strongly; especially for sick parents who are ailing, on left relationships with the extended family and preservation of family ties; but not only preserving memory for children but also for families.

In reading that, it hit me how universal the need to be able to connect to family histories are in shaping our identity. And in particular, cultures where stories and beliefs are passed down orally through the generations, HIV/AIDS is robbing millions of children of this history. But it is not only important in Africa and PNG to do this same kind of work, perhaps it should be an important part of supporting and helping facilitate immigrant communities to be able to continue connecting to their home country/culture or Aboriginal communities preserving their stories for future generations as a means of preserving their identity. But I too have been on a journey the last two years learning about my own family background. After moving to Footscray last year where my grandparents and great-grandparents all lived, there was something liberating about learning more about my family in the smallest things such as driving past an old church at the end of my new street and my grandmother telling me that is where my great-grandfather went to primary school. A good friend in Footscray Marcus, is very passionate about connecting to his Cornish roots and helped me to have a much deeper and richer understanding of not only where I’ve come from but also what it means for my life. For Christians, we have a shared history where our identity is not only shaped by Jesus, but our understanding of him should be embedded in our understanding of the Exodus story where God liberated the oppressed Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

So I don’t really know how to finish these rambling thoughts, they continue to evolve as I talk to more people about them. I would love to hear what others think…whether they have experienced a need to connect to their roots, or perhaps they are still trying to find what those are??? Does it even matter to you??