Trauma and Resilience During War: A Look at the Children and Humanitarian Aid Workers of Bosnia

This article will explore some of the issues of resilience in the child population of Bosnia during the recent war there. It will also look at similar issues in the humanitarian aid workers who came from outside the country as representatives of relief agencies. I, myself, worked for UNICEF, and it was my job to train members of the local population to work with Bosnian children in an attempt to increase their resilience under intense wartime stress and to reduce the traumatic impact to those children already harmed.

Resilience is a term that has long been used to describe the factors which promote well-being and stoutheartedness in individuals who are undergoing unusually stressful conditions.

Resilience, which might be evident under more normal circumstances, is difficult to detect under wartime conditions because the latter present an immediate life threat and an emergency situation. The need to take action to survive may override many of the normal mechanisms the individual uses to create psychological homeostasis.

Attempting to use a scientific model to measure types of resilience is problematic in a wartorn society, not only because of the obstacles created by the dangers and shortages, but also because of the moral dilemma posed by utilizing precious resources for scientific study rather than for helping people stay alive. In trucks and airplanes with limited space, food and vaccines