Andrew Branch - November journal letter
Freedom from Torture
Dear Friends,
Three months have already slipped into memory, leaving an individual changed and developed by experience in their wake. The preparation week of serenity and reflection we took solace in at Woodbrooke allowed me to locate my ‘reset’ button so that I could go forward into my first week at Freedom from Torture without prejudice, preconceptions or bad habits. Most importantly, Woodbrooke transformed my fears into excitement and I arrived at the beautifully sculpted and purpose-built Freedom from Torture offices with a groggy sense of wonder and anticipation.
I remember the first day feeling like walking into a surprise party where everyone thinks it’s your birthday. It isn’t, but you politely listen as one by one people come to congratulate and welcome you, and you try your absolute best to remember everyone’s names, but you can’t. I met nearly all of the staff who share the same floor as me, in one day, in person. When you consider that there are over 100 staff in the London office of Freedom from Torture, you may understand why I left work that day feeling incredibly elated, accepted, but tired – my head was still as fuzzy as it had been that morning, but anticipation and wonder had been replaced with an outlandish amount of information and joy.
By the following week I was beginning to get a handle on the mechanisms of a modern office. My line manager and superlative office tutor, Hannah, enlisted me as her right hand man in organising and supporting a high-profile training programme for Russian speaking delegates, I threw myself into every aspect of this project and cut my teeth on training logistics and a complex language barrier. In one week I had gained a lot of the foundation knowledge and experience I needed to begin work on the Peaceworker project.
Aside from supporting the rest of the training team on an as-and-when basis, my main task for the year is to complete a particular project of work that Freedom from Torture would not have had the capacity to do without my placement.
I am currently in the process of project managing the design of a new training programme on Self-care for people who come into contact with material relating to those who have experienced serious trauma (torture). Quite a mouthful, I know, now let me elaborate.
It is widely accepted that working with traumatic material (e.g. research reports, survivor accounts, interpreting survivors experiences, clinically supporting survivors, or even working on reception in an organisation like Freedom from Torture) can cause those exposed to it to exhibit symptoms of stress, depression and burnout – this is called Vicarious Traumatisation or Compassion Fatigue. It can be extremely destructive when people try to carry on working despite suffering these symptoms, and it can have a detrimental effect on them, their colleagues and especially on the clients and survivors of torture that they work with.
Freedom from Torture has received many requests for training in Self-care and Compassion Fatigue, and has delivered some bespoke programmes that address this. However, the requests are so frequent, they have realised that tailor-making training for every need and organisation is impractical and limits their capacity for training in this area. Thus, the programme I am designing will be an open programme that can be advertised and offered several times a year in order to reach many more people at risk of Compassion Fatigue.
The design itself is based upon the work that has been done in the past, but also on a new, comprehensive questionnaire that I have just finished collecting and assessing. The questionnaire was distributed to a spectrum of different departments within Freedom from Torture, representing demographics that have different types of contact with traumatic material. The results are confidential, but I can assure you all, Friends, the need for this training programme is great indeed and hopefully many people will be able to offer better support to their colleagues, clients and survivors of torture as a result of this project.
Before I started work as a Peaceworker I worked in-store for the Co-operative Group, and before that I was at University. I have never really had much office-work experience before now, and despite graduating with first-class honours and an academic award for my research project I was daunted by the most simple and basic aspects of office life. Perhaps this added to my first-day bafflement. Nevertheless, I have been able to adapt quickly and easily to this environment. Hannah, my line manager, keeps apologising for ‘throwing me in at the deep-end’, but I believe that it provided me with a situation where I could either sink or swim. My commitment and passion for the work took me from treading-water to front crawl in no time. Whilst I know I have the drive to continue to learn in this environment, it would not be possible without the amazing support of the Training and Capacity Building team. They have been the most welcoming, supportive and genuinely friendly team of staff that I have ever had the privilege to work with, and I know I am very lucky to have them as colleagues.
As soon as I finish writing this journal letter I am going to get right back to the project, and begin assembling a design team to start work on the programme design itself. I am thriving in this new work, I am happier as an individual than I have been for a very long time, and somehow I feel like I am full of those magically energetic beans that grown-ups enviously accuse children of having!
In friendship,
Andrew Branch
