PREE Views 3: ACEs and Caribbean Children

For Jorel

VLADIMIR LUCIEN

That night she watch the door, she watch she watch she watch the hours of the door, her foot blinking like a eye on the floor;

My Soul Has Holes in It

ROLAND WATSON-GRANT

The fundamentalist church of my childhood was like an abusive parent – a manipulative, anxious, delusional parent. Interestingly, research has shown that abusive parents were in many cases, victims themselves.

Trauma and Enforced Disappearances in the Sri Lankan Civil War    

In this original interview done for PREE’s special issue on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and storytelling, Laura Tovar, a conflict transformation specialist from Colombia speaks with Thurka Krishansamy, a development practitioner from Sri Lanka. Thurka is a Sri Lankan Tamil and a survivor of the country’s prolonged civil war during which she experienced displacement, extreme…

What Rohan Bullkin Taught Me About Reading

UTE KELLY

At times, I wondered whether Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows is one story or two – one about literacy and the other about ACEs. And yes, telling separate stories about these things is of course possible, as is recovery from trauma via other routes.

Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows: The Backstory

JULEUS GHUNTA

Poverty impacted every aspect of my life. By the time I was five years old, I had lived in six homes. Some days, when we had nothing to eat, mother sent us to our neighbours in the hope that they would feed us. They did.

The Allegorical Child: Sex and Sexuality in Caribbean Young Adult (YA) Fiction

BERKLEY WENDELL SEMPLE

A strange and unnecessary bashfulness prevailed in our literature. This was glaring when compared to the treatment of other themes, like politics, religion or colonialism. The absence of sex and sexuality in Caribbean literature reflected our actual lives in troubling ways – ways that did not take into consideration the wide-ranging experiences…

The other BLM: Boys’ Lives Matter

JEROME TEELUCKSINGH

Caribbean governments should stop overlooking the importance of creating enabling environments for the boy child. We need to identify at-risk boys and rescue them from the pervasive waves of hopelessness and pessimism in the region.

ACEs: Dynamic Developmental Disruptors

RICHARD HONIGMAN

For the child whose development has been impaired by past adverse experiences, its hyperacute defensive survival reactions take precedence. As a consequence, the child’s ability to integrate and utilise higher cortical functioning is compromised.

The Long Shadow of Trauma Holds Survivors Hostage

STEPHANIE GUTHMAN

For many children, school becomes their refuge – but for Donavan, it was just another place to fear. Donavan didn’t feel supported by his teachers because they didn’t understand him or know anything about what happened at home.

How ACEs Science Saved My Life

JULIA TORRES BARDEN

I wanted to tell the judge that my mother and stepfather were alcoholics who used drugs and fought violently in front of me. He needed to know that I had stomach aches every day and I couldn’t concentrate on school because I had to be hypervigilant to protect myself from them.

A World Without Untold Stories

BENJAMIN PERKS

Many of our stories remain untold because they are either buried deep in the subconscious or we have no vocabulary to narrate them or no faith in being heard.