IsraAID seeks to help Kenya deal with grief management after mass killing
Attackers reportedly separated the Muslim students from the non-Muslims and killed approximately 147 Christian students in the processing, injuring an additional 79.
By ARIEL COHENRelative of victim of Thursday's terror attack in Kenya(photo credit: REUTERS)
Following the horrific massacre by the radical Muslim terror group al-Shabab from Somalia which killed over 150 Christian students in Kenya, the Israeli relief group IsraAID is helping Kenyan government officials deal with the tragedy.IsraAID is currently holding discussions with Kenyan government counterparts as well as with the local Kenyan Red Cross and UN officials in hopes of creating a grief and disaster management plan for the government, modeled off the Israeli plan.Were basing it on the Israeli model,” founding director of IsraAID, Sachar Zahavi told The Jerusalem Post. “IsraAIDs focus would be to provide post trauma training and treatment to help the affected community and service providers cope with their grief.”Over 150 Kenyans were murdered at Garissa University College in the northeastern part of the country last Thursday. The attack was perpetrated by the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab group that has killed over 400 people in Kenya since 2013.Attackers reportedly separated the Muslim students from the non-Muslims and killed approximately 147 Christian students, injuring an additional 79.The Israeli organization plans to build a plan with local authorities on how to equip government authorities with how to deal with the stress and grief on the families that were killed.In order to help the Kenyan government obtain the tools to help their community going through crisis, IsraAID hopes to deploy a full Israeli team to the area. They currently have two Israeli volunteers dealing with the crisis, as well as a full team providing aid in the northern part of the country.“The short term goal is to deal with the trauma.” Zachvai said. “The long term goal is to have a group of Kenyan professionals who are able to respond to such emergencies and crises in the future.”