The therapy dogs introduced at LightRay Children’s home in Bardege-Layibi Division in Gulu city for trauma counselling.
By Brian Komakech & Walter Okot
Gulu
Three years ago, Heike Rath, the Director of LightRay Uganda felt worried about the level of trauma among vulnerable children at an orphanage center she founded in Obiya West, Bardege-Layibi Division in Gulu City.
This was during the coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic period when the country registered cases of COVID-19 infections and deaths, forcing the government to institute a nationwide lockdown.
The 55-year-old German national, who founded the charity Non-governmental organization helping vulnerable children in 2010 at the time tested positive for covid-19 and was stuck in the country.
“Three years ago, in the dormitory setting, the issues of demons, nightmares, you know those kids were traumatized. they were maybe 12, 13, and 14 years old, all of it you know it started, they screamed at night and they had some nightmares, so I discussed it with my daughter on the phone three years ago because I got COVID-19 and I got stuck in my apartment,” said Rath.
At the time, Rath said she discussed her concerns about the children’s trauma with her daughter Zoe Rath who later suggested a therapy dog could be a remedy for their healing.
According to her, their discussion would later turn into a reality two years ago when they took two of their young dogs in Münster City in Germany for therapy training.
The therapy dogs, all Red Fox Labrador breeds named Amalia and Noah valued at shs160m, arrived in the country from Germany two weeks ago at the children’s home in Gulu City.
LightRay Children’s Home accommodates some 54 children comprising orphans, victims of torture and sexual abuse, neglected and abandoned children, those with chronic ailments, and those from poor families.
Rath said the therapy dogs will play key roles as “social workers” in helping to heal children who are suffering from trauma adding that dogs are more emotional than humans and can easily detect stress.
“Dogs are 400 times more emotional than we humans, so they can already feel that something has happened to this child before you will realize it,” Rath said Friday.
The therapy dogs were handed over to social workers at LightRay Children’s Home on Friday after undergoing two years of extensive training in schools, and different family homes in Germany.
The dogs will add to the already existing three social workers at the orphanage, two of whom are being trained on how to handle them for the children’s therapy sessions.
“The vision is that the dogs especially are working with traumatized children but also with slow learners or what we call stubborn kids in class, they will sit in class and calm those kids down,”
Adding that “We in Germany, we work with those therapy dogs in many areas, we have therapy dogs in school, in social areas, those people know already that these dogs can do a good job for those children, blind people.”
The therapy dogs, according to Rath, won’t only serve the children at the orphanage but also adults who need psychosocial support.
Duration of healing using dogs
Rath revealed that it takes between six months to one year for a client to get healed through therapy dogs but noted that total healing depends on the magnitude of the condition.
How will the dogs help the children?
According to one of the social workers, the two dogs will spend their time in the seven children’s households both day and night and also once in a while be taken to the children’s school.
“These dogs will sleep in the same households the children are sleeping in. They will be able to detect problems that the kids have at night especially those going through terrible nightmares or trauma and that will help us to manage their condition appropriately,” he told GNNA.
Flonan Sumanzig, a dog trainer from Germany said the dogs can sense when a child will start a nightmare at night and will immediately go to the child to comfort them.
He noted that the dogs can sense when to play with a child in need and have an accurate knowledge of detecting when a traumatized child needs somebody around them.
Sumanzig however says the dogs have specially been trained for therapy and do not bark or bite their clients.
How do dogs detect stress?
Charles Obalim, the Veterinary Officer in Gulu City explained that dogs are excellent at smelling hormones released by the human body when they are stressed that can’t be detected by human social workers.
He noted that when a person develops stress, their body releases certain hormones that consist of adrenaline and cortisol which can be detected by the trained dogs.
According to Obalim, the initiative of introducing therapy dogs will help the local populace in getting healing from trauma.
“We want this project to multiply because we have many people who are stressed and some are getting mad. We need these therapy dogs in many institutions even at the government hospitals,” said Obalim.
About a year ago, medics at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital attributed depression to the rising cases of mental illnesses among males and females.
Statistics provided by Alfred Droti, a Senior Psychiatric Clinical Officer at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital indicated that some 400 patients visit the outpatient department at the hospital weekly seeking mental health services.
Need to embrace dogs
Patrick Oola Lumumba, the Bardege-Layibi division Mayor encouraged the community members to embrace dogs as their companions instead of hurting them.
Lumumba said there is a need for all children’s homes within the city to introduce therapy dogs to address cases of trauma among children who faced neglect and abuse from their community.
Rising cases of child neglect
Walter Ochora, a representative of the Gulu City Probation officer noted on Friday that cases of child neglect and abuse in the city are a concern. He said their offices receive between three to four cases of child neglect daily with the bulk of the cases arising from domestic violence in homes.
Ochora said he is optimistic that the therapy dogs will change the lives of disadvantaged children at the orphanage and prepare them for a better future.
This is the second project in the Acholi Sub-region where dogs are being used for psycho-social rehabilitation for victims of abuse, and war. About three years ago, the Big Fix Ugandan, an animal welfare organization launched the comfort dog project to provide therapeutic support to the victims of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) war.
The two decades of brutal war between the LRA and the Ugandan Army devastated many lives and communities leaving many people still suffering from mental challenges.
