RTI in the News
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Zarlasht Halaimzai: striving to provide a better future for refugees
The Lancet, December 11, 2021
RTI’s CEO Zarlasht Halaimzai was profiled in medical journal The Lancet about her work providing psychosocial care and support to refugees and RTI’s trauma-sensitive and identity-informed approach.
Interview with Zarlasht Halaimzai
BBC World – Global with Matthew Amroliwala, December 08, 2021 (interview no longer available)
RTI’s CEO Zarlasht Halaimzai spoke to Matthew Amroliwala about her inclusion on the BBC 100 Women list and RTI’s work providing psychosocial support to refugees.
BBC 100 Women 2021
BBC, December 07, 2021
A former refugee from Afghanistan herself, Zarlasht Halaimzai is co-founder and chief executive of the Refugee Trauma Initiative (RTI), an organisation that provides psychological support to refugees and helps them deal with the emotional impact of violence and displacement.
Unpacking the myth of the ‘good refugee’
The Impact Room, December 07, 2021
In the politics of migration, refugees are either demonised as intruders or celebrated for their success. But how does this distinction of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ refugees shape policies and perceptions? And what is the effect on those who are defined by it?
Understanding the emotional fallout of violence and displacement is more important than ever.
Ted Talk, December 02, 2021 (video link to talk not yet available)
War is dislocating. It gets inside your body and makes you into a thing – a corpse. It can dislodge empathy, hope and joy and replace them with fear. The fear that comes from living in the violence of war can break social bonds, disbanding the very communities that we rely on for safety.
What connects the Holocaust and the Taliban?
Haaretz, September 30, 2021
As countries around the world begin to resettle traumatized Afghan refugees, they need specific care to recover and start new lives – and research into Holocaust survivors and their families can help.
The 20 Years War with Zarlasht Halaimzai
America Dissected, September 07, 2021
It became very clear to me that one of the things that was really important was to address the trauma that people were experiencing because of the wars and because of displacement. And it also became very clear to me that there were very few interventions that specifically addressed that, and there were even fewer interventions that address this in a way that was identity-informed and understood the histories in the context of the people that they were trying to help.
Five Ways to Help Afghan Refugees Arriving in the UK
Positive News, August 31, 2021
As refugees are resettled, many in people’s homes, it is vital that they are made to feel welcome. “Simple acts of kindness go a long way,” said Laramie Shubber of the Refugee Trauma Initiative, a non-profit that provides displaced people with mental health support.
OPINION: Will parents send children alone?
Jewish News, August 25, 2021
Following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Afghan women, human rights defenders, journalists and many more have been at immediate risk. Watching the panic and fear has been deeply distressing for many including ourselves.
The events unfolding brought back memories for both our families…Our families know how it feels to desperately try to get your family to safety.
Support for Afghan Refugees
Sky News, August 20, 2021 (Interview no longer available)
Gabriella Brent, RTI’s Clinical Lead, spoke to Sarah Hewson about the support Afghan refugees need, RTI’s work and why a trauma-sensitive approach is important.
Interview with Zarlasht Halaimzai about the Afghanistan crisis
The Lorraine Show, August 18, 2021 (Interview no longer available)
RTI’s CEO Zarlasht Halaimzai spoke with Christine Lampard about current events in Afghanistan.
‘We tried to be joyful enough to deserve our new lives’: What it’s really like to be a refugee in Britain
The Guardian, July 20, 2021
To survive the journey, we needed stories of hope. For us, that story was safety in London, but the reality was very different.
COVID-19 and an island bursting at the seams
Are You Syrious? March 29, 2020
If two months of escalating tensions have shown us anything, it is that we can neither condemn, nor denounce, nor destroy our way out of the grievous situation in Lesvos. Instead, we must try to understand our way out of it.
The Basis of Human Survival (podcast)
Stories of Transformation, March 24, 2020
If there is support available, then the potential of trauma being transformative is much higher than if people were just left to deal with these things on their own.
An Afghan perspective on the peace negotiations in Afghanistan (podcast)
Pod Save the World, March 11, 2020
Peace won’t hold if you don’t include women, if you don’t include civil society… Inclusion should extend to not just people being at the table, but also their interests being represented and protected: all the civil rights womens rights, young people’s [rights].
Lesvos: Empower both islanders and asylum seekers to defuse tensions
The New Humanitarian, February 17, 2020
Asylum seekers in Greece have overcome tremendous adversity to get where they are; their resilience is worthy of admiration. With the right support, they can overcome their circumstances, form communities, and integrate – and help make Europe more whole…
The United States’ fatal flaw in Afghanistan? Excluding Afghans.
The Washington Post, December 11, 2019
Against these odds, a generation of young Afghans has kept fighting to secure democracy and rebuild their country. A recent survey by Asia Foundation revealed a country with rising levels of optimism. Democracy, women’s rights and the new constitution top the list of priorities that Afghans want to protect in any peace negotiations…
How To Build A Business That’s Truly Life Changing
She Owns Success, September 24, 2018
For most people the challenges associated with starting a business can overwhelm our desire to take action and we can hold back, never making the leap for fear of what might happen.
But Zarlasht Halaimzai is not like most people…
Obama Foundation Announces Initial Cohort of Obama Fellows
Philanthropy News Digest, April 18, 2018
The Obama Foundation has announced the inaugural cohort of its Obama Fellows Program, a two-year, non-residential program that brings together civic leaders from around the around who are ‘creating transformational change.’
Selected from a pool of over twenty thousand applicants from more than a hundred and ninety countries…
Refugee turned volunteer among first Obama fellows
The Guardian, 17th April 2018. (PDF)
Obama writes in an accompanying email: “These 20 leaders, representing 11 countries, are tackling some of the toughest challenges in their communities. They are doing the hard work – not for recognition, often without enough resources – because they have a vision of the world as it should be: a little more just, less isolated, more connected…”
Obama Foundation’s fellows include South African activist and Afghan refugee
The Guardian, 16th April 2018. (PDF)
He adds: ‘I couldn’t be prouder of this group, and I can’t wait to learn from them and watch them grow over the next two years. The Foundation will facilitate hands-on trainings, leadership development, coaching and personalized plans and strategies to help these leaders scale the work they’ve already started’.
The Obama Foundation Has Announced Its 2018 Fellows
Paper Magazine, April 16 2018
Halaimzai, who came to England from Afghanistan as a refugee, started the Refugee Trauma Initiative to help provide refugees with counseling…
Obama Foundation Selects Fellowship Winners From Shortlist.
The Fashion Plate Magazine, April 16, 2018
Each member of the elite team is a civic leader who brings a variety of disciplines and skill sets to their work – including community organizing, healthcare, technology, and the arts – and they apply their talents to a range of missions, from empowering parents and teachers to improve our schools, to ensuring deaf children have equal access to literacy tools, to bringing trauma-informed care to the criminal justice system and refugee camps.
Giving trauma therapy to the families of refugees in northern Greece.
BBC World Service Weekend, April 8, 2018 (Interview no longer available)
New Activists: Camilla Meets With Zarlasht Of The ‘Refugee Trauma Initiative’
HuffPost UK, November 23, 2017
On today’s episode of New Activists, Camilla meets with Zarhlast, of the Refugee Trauma Initiative, and her sister. They talk about their journeys in getting to the UK and the misconceptions people have of refugees.
From a fashion leader to a humanitarian hero, meet our 2017 future shapers
Marie Claire, October 6, 2017
If you can square it with your conscience, try anything and make it work.” That’s what my grandmother said to me when I was young. A lot of the families I work with had totally normal lives, working in schools or shops, or studying to be engineers. Then one day their lives just got taken away…
‘It’s not a crisis or a problem that we can sweep under the rug’
The Psychologist, October 2017
While around 1 per cent of the world’s entire population is currently displaced, including 22.5 million refugees, our awareness, and care for, their plight seems to fluctuate with the news agenda. History may look back on this period and wonder how it could have been ignored. Our journalist Ella Rhodes spoke to a psychosocial worker working at the heart of the crisis in Greece…
How You Can Help Deliver Psychological First Aid to Refugees
Grazia, September 14 2017
I recognised that look of panic in their eyes because I was a child refugee. Like them, my family and I were forced to leave behind everything we knew and loved to save our lives…
Why I’m Using GoFundMe To Tackle The Psychological Crisis Of Refugee Children And How You Can Help Me
HuffPost, September 10, 2017
That is why I co-founded Refugee Trauma Initiative – an organisation dedicated to meeting the emotional and psychological needs of refugees and supporting volunteers and aid workers to better help these communities…
Meet the Afghan refugee raising money for Syria’s war victims to get psychological support
International Business Times, July 19 2017
Twenty years later, her story resonates with hundreds of thousands of refugees who are fleeing modern-day wars in what has been deemed the worst refugee crisis since World War II…
Exploring the unique needs of asylum-seekers and refugees
The Psychologist, November 2016
The health of refugees in camps is in jeopardy, she added: many are stuck in cramped warehouses, relying on aid, and are much more prone to communicable conditions such as flu or bronchitis…