Kenny Dennis presents a diploma to one of the 42 students who took a counseling training course in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in September.

(Oct. 21, 2013 - by Harold Goerzen and Sheila Leech) The caller was desperate for help. Pent-up anger and bitterness were tearing her apart emotionally and spiritually. But now she was ready to forgive the child soldiers who had killed her parents in the West African country of Sierra Leone a few years earlier.

As the woman bared her soul during a live call-in program on HCJB Global's partner radio ministry, Believers Broadcasting Network (BBN), in Freetown, another call came in.

"The caller said he was one of the young men who had attacked the woman's village and may well have even been one of her parents' killers," shared the station's Sierra Leonean director, Ransford Wright. "Then he was able to ask forgiveness of her, and although it was very emotional, she was able to forgive."

A child soldier during Sierra Leone's civil war. Photo credit: WordPress.com

Her parents were among 50,000 killed in the nation's brutal decade-long civil war that ended in 2002. Thousands of others were maimed and mutilated, losing their arms, hands and legs to soldiers wielding machetes in the senseless violence. Some 2 million people were forced from their homes, many becoming refugees in neighboring Guinea and Liberia.

Although the story is not a recent one, it personifies the continuing trauma faced by some 500,000 people in the country of 6.2 million who suffer from anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and substance abuse. Yet few receive treatment, and the situation remains dire.

Global National, the news and current affairs division of Canada's Global Television Network, reported in 2012 that "mental illness is a growing problem [in Sierra Leone]. Getting professional help is nearly impossible…. In Freetown there is only one psychiatrist and two psychiatric nurses. Outside of Freetown there is nothing."

"There is also a lot of domestic violence, but most don't like to talk about it," said Kenny Dennis, a licensed professional counselor whose practice in Colorado Springs, Colo., specializes in trauma and stress cases. Along with Daphne Hyde of the BBN Counselling Centre, he helped lead a three-day counselor training workshop, Sept. 24-26, for 42 participants. Also representing HCJB Global were Sheila Leech, vice president of global healthcare, and Lee Sonius, executive director of the Sub-Saharan Africa Region.

"Many of the soldiers who committed atrocities during the war were teenagers," added Dennis, who spent nearly two weeks in Africa with his wife, Lauri, human resources director at HCJB Global. "In some cases the people who did these things to them still live next door. After the civil war, everyone got amnesty."

The workshop was the fulfillment of a long-awaited dream. For nine years BBN has hosted call-in counseling programs on the radio station. Although counseling is not part of Sierra Leonean culture, it soon became apparent from the volume of calls and the needs expressed that more help was needed for the people of Freetown.

Decimated by the bloody civil war, Sierra Leone ranked as the world's eighth-poorest country in the United Nation's 2011 Human Development Report. The war left a population mentally scarred, damaged and physically impoverished. Freetown is a crowded, hot, congested, polluted city lacking even basic services such as water, electricity, sewage and healthcare.

BBN's Daphne Hyde leads a session during the counseling workshop.

When Wright shared his dream to open a drop-in counseling center in the city two years ago, HCJB Global's staff immediately saw the potential of adding another dimension to the radio ministry thus adding "hands" to the "voice" of the radio. In 2011 a work team led by missionary Nate Dell went to help get the drop-in center ready. In the first 18 months of its operation, more than 700 people went to the center for help.

In his remarks at the opening of the training event, Wright commented that each of those 700 people represented 700 families affected and 700 families helped in a positive way. His dream is to see this ministry expand beyond Freetown and into the provinces. Part of his vision is to open a training center for counselors, and this workshop was the first step in making that dream come true.

Originally the workshop was planned for 25 participants, but demand for the training quickly increased when word of the event began to spread.

"We had to make room for almost twice that many because we started getting applications from across the city and even beyond," Wright said. "This could be a sign that more and more people are realizing the value of professional counseling services in what used to be a 'conservative' society. Another motivating factor was the fact that we were hosting experts from the U.S. The prospect of a knowledge transfer was huge and our expectations were exceeded."

Dennis often used role-plays during the sessions to increase participation, loosen up the crowd and demonstrate the effectiveness of counseling. "The interactive presentation style worked very well in keeping the sessions lively throughout," Wright explained. "Kenny and Lauri were very efficient throughout, Kenny being a great teacher/facilitator and Lauri being very complementary, helping him organize and filling in on role-plays."

"The type of people at the training was wide and varied," added Dennis. "We had teachers, pastors, students, housewives, two girls who work at a place for abandoned children, and a guy who serves at an amputee refugee camp. He's already contacted us about staying in touch and asked for additional assistance." The Dennises are making plans to return in 2014.

Wright said the ministry's counseling center and future ones like it could play a strategic role in the evangelization of Sierra Leone which remains largely unreached with the gospel despite two centuries of mission work in the country. About 3.9 percent of residents are evangelical, according to Operation World.

"We are witnessing a lot of interest from Muslims who walk in to the center for counseling and leave satisfied … sometimes saved," he added. "From feedback we've received, many of them were impressed with the professional standards of our team."

Dennis recounted that when someone is helped by the counseling, it has a multiplying effect. "If a person who is violent or depressed and can't or won't work gets some kind of help, it benefits the whole family and makes a difference in a community," he said. "There is a lot of openness to the gospel. Many realize they are coming to a Christian center even though they don't have a Christian faith, so it's an evangelistic tool."

Sources: HCJB Global, Operation World, United Nations, Global National