Livelihoods
According to IRCT Member, ACTV in Uganda, regaining a livelihood improves the quality of life, restorEs lost hope, rebuildS social relations, and fosterS community integration – all important to rehabilitation. Credit: ACTV, Uganda
Did you know that poverty is a leading risk factor for torture?
Being poor makes you more likely to be tortured. And being tortured makes you more likely to be poor, as survivors struggle to return to work, putting them at risk of falling into a cycle of poverty and social exclusion, aggravating the trauma already suffered.
IRCT’s Global Impact Data since 2024 consistently shows that 56% of all torture survivors treated around the world, Global North and South, also live in poverty, according to their national standard. In such a context, the ability of members to deliver as full rehabilitation as possible to survivors of torture was severely constrained in cases where the survivor was struggling to meet basic needs for themselves and their family.
This is the e-learning platform for the members of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims.
If you are a member and do not have access, please contact Berta Soley (bso@irct.org)
Member centres have long called for a holistic approach to torture rehabilitation, reporting that psychosocial and medical services are not effective if the basic needs of survivors are not met. Mental and physical health has been the primary focus of rehabilitation programmes, but many centres in the Global South report progress is difficult to maintain without socio-economic support to the survivor.
After all, torture survivors are still mothers, fathers, husbands and wives, with households to feed, and often battling against the unemployment and disability directly caused by the torture they have suffered.
Put simply, if basic needs like food, sanitation or proper housing – the outcomes of poverty – are not addressed by our member centres as they treat survivors, rehabilitation is unlikely to succeed.
Legend Golden Care Foundation (LGCF) in nigeria has trained 50 survivors in vocational and business skills, providing start‑up support that has enabled new small enterprises
“This milling machine has changed my life. Now I know my children will eat and it has lifted my low self-esteem. I can play with my children. I even laugh.”
Highlights:
IRCT Supporting Livelihoods
In 2025, 21 IRCT member centres implemented livelihoods projects and a total of 1,307 survivors had received direct livelihoods support through sub-grants amounting to some EUR 370,000.
Out of the 21 centres, all have now reported positive impact on the mental health and overall wellbeing of survivors having received livelihoods support together with rehabilitation services.
The map illustrates some of the Livelihood projects carried out by IRCT members 2024 – 2025.
Survivors Speak Out:
IRCT Livelihoods in Action
INDIA – Ghurahu, a day labourer from Varanasi and member of India’s most marginalised caste, knows all too well the link between poverty and torture. Unlawfully arrested and beaten unconscious by police, Ghurahu’s healing began with talking therapy at IRCT member the PVCHR. But his life was also improved by some very practical assistance: Seeds to plant his own kitchen garden.
Now, instead of taking rotten scraps from the market, Ghurahu has enough fruit and vegetables to feed his family.
Watch this video, Seeds of Hope, to learn more about his story and PVCHR‘s inspiring work.
“The torture has left me with problems, but my condition is improving little by little. Now I have enough food to feed my family.”
Ghurahu Vanwasi, Torture Survivor, India
UGANDA – IRCT member the African Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors (ACTV) supports rural communities left severely traumatised by Uganda’s civil war.
As part of torture rehabilitation, survivors are encouraged to work together in a group, and some have received cattle, crops or a milling machine in order to secure basic food needs for their families, and to generate some income. Other survivors have received offered start-up capital to start a small business.
Betty Amory was kidnapped by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, but has now been given medical assistance and offered start-up capital in the form of children’s clothes to sell.
Arach Santa Mulare, a survivor of Uganda’s brutal civil war works with a group of survivors at a milling machine donated by ACTV. “Now I know my children will eat.”
PALESTINE – Since its occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967, local NGOs estimate Israel has detained around one million Palestinians, a fifth of the entire population.
Each year, IRCT member the Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Torture (TRC Palestine) receives around 900 cases of Palestinians left severely traumatised by torture and ill-treatment by Israeli authorities.
Supporting survivors to return to work has become integral to the healing services offered by TRC.
Bakr Abdullah al-Saad, a barber from Beit El in the West Bank, tells the story of his journey to healing, “When you are first released from prison, you feel lost”
“When I was released I found TRC who helped me with rehabilitation and training, which increased my self-confidence and gave me the motivation to continue and achieve my goals.”
Bakr Abdullah al-Saad, torture survivor, West Bank, Palestine
DR CONGO – The east of DR Congo, at the border with Rwanda and Burundi, has suffered decades of ongoing conflict by men with guns. IRCT has five members in the region, most of them established by women to support survivors of torture from the conflict, and promote female leadership.
Two members, Fédération des Femmes pour le Développement Intégral au Congo (FEDICONGO) and Regroupement des Mamans de Kamituga (REMAK) have received grants from IRCT to implement livelihoods projects for survivors. REMAK’s livelihoods programme, an agriculture project, has had a positive impact on the lives of torture survivors, while Fedicongo has helped women set up small businesses.
Watch how FEDICONGO helps survivors, “Since I received help from FEDICONGO, things seem to be going better,” says Elisabeth Fatuma Lokoka, from Uvira, in South Kivu, who was left widowed with seven children after rebels killed her husband. “We’d like to thank this organisation for thinking of women who have been widowed, tortured or sexually abused, because it wasn’t easy. We didn’t know where to start.”
“The income they have helps them develop their lives a little, helps them take care of themselves,” said Vainqueur Kalafula, President of REMAK. the impact of livelihoods support on rehabilitation is clear: From 15 survivors also receiving psychological support from REMAK over the year, 14 now report a decrease in trauma sufficient to be discharged from medical treatment.
KENYA – Carpentry. Chickens. Selling cereals. Torture rehabilitation can take many forms. In Kenya, the Mwatikho Torture Survivors’ Foundation is using an IRCT livelihoods grant to support women and youth from families whose principal breadwinner was tortured, and left unable to return to work, to restore their means of income.
Christopher Sikobi explains How Mwatikho Torture Survivors’ Foundation helped him and other secondary survivors of torture start chicken farms.
“Before the project many of us had lost hope in life … But through this project the community has changed their view of us.”
Christopher Sikobi, secondary survivor of torture, Kenya
Insights:
Evaluation the Livelihoods Project
The Livelihoods initiative was launched in 2021 in response to strong demand from member centres, particularly in the Global South, for a more holistic approach to torture rehabilitation that complements psychosocial and medical services with livelihoods support.
Addressing survivors’ basic needs is critical, given the clear link between poverty, marginalisation, and torture: people who are poor and marginalised are more vulnerable to torture, while survivors are often excluded from economic and social life.
The evaluation aimed to review results and assess the implementation of the IRCT Livelihoods Project for Torture Survivors.
Watch: Livelihoods as Part of Rehabilitation: Findings from the External Review.
The webinar features independent Evaluator Charlotte Ørnemark Followed by questions and comments by IRCT Member centres.
In Focus:
Livelihoods Discussed
Watch IRCT’s Insights ‘Support the Poor: Why Livelihoods is Integral to Torture Rehabilitation
Watch IRCT’s Webinar ‘M&E Systems for Livelihood Projects’
Watch IRCT’s Webinar ‘Livelihoods in Torture Rehabilitation – Experiences from IRCT Members’
“I feel happy today and can smile all day. There are still some challenges, but I can face theme with hope. The sessions with the psychologist were of great help and coupled with the financial possibilities from sewing, it has been a great relief. It gives a meaning to my life. It feels good to be useful.”
In Focus:
Steering Committee
Developed and implemented through a Steering Committee of five-member centres with experience in integrating livelihoods as a component of rehabilitation, the Special Project is one of the goals the IRCT has set itself under its Strategy 2022-2025.
The Livelihoods initiatives empower individual survivors to regain control of their and their family’s socio-economic situation, thereby restoring the agency lost during their torture experience. For many torture survivors, successful livelihood initiatives thus present fulfilling life projects that both enable and empower them to heal.
20 IRCT members centres are implementing Livelihoods projects as part of their rehabilitation programmes:
- African Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (ACTV), Uganda
- Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation (TPO), Nepal
- Restart, Lebanon
- Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Torture (TRC), Palestine
- Peoples’ Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR), India
- Family Rehabilitation Centre (FRC), Sri Lanka
- Solidarité d’Action pour la Paix – Grand Lacs (SAP GL), Burundi
- Regroupement des Mamans de Kamituga (Remak), DRC
- Fédération des Femmes pour le Développement Intégral au Congo (Fedicongo), DRC
- Mwatikho Torture Survivors Foundation (MATESOF), Kenya
- Independent Medico Legal Unit (IMLU), Kenya
- Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), Nigeria
- Tree of Life (ToL), Zimbabwe
- Albanian Rehabilitation Centre for Trauma and Torture Victims (ARCT), Albania
- Trauma Centre Cameroon (TCC), Cameroon
- Counselling Services Unit (CSU), Zimbabwe
- The Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims (KRCT), Kosovo
- Rescue Alternatives Liberia (RAL), Liberia
All members have so far reported positive impact on the mental health (self-confidence, hope for future, motivation, etc.), increased income and overall wellbeing of survivors.
Research:
Torture Journal
