Although there has been peace in most parts of Uganda since 1986, in Mbarara district in southwest Uganda nobody talks about their war experience; there is one big conspiracy of silence. According to the people who live there, it is not good to talk, it can be dangerous and can make you ill. This article deals with the question why these people keep silent about their horrifying war experiences. It appears that the community and the social and cultural institutions have been destroyed. People have no public space to share their memories of the war. Together with the economic, political and psychological aspects, this all contributes to a situation in which keeping silent might be the best thing to do.

In this article a form of psychotherapy for traumatised children and adolescents (KIDNET) is described. This approach is based on Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), a short-term treatment method for traumatised adults. The description of KIDNET is illustrated with a detailed report of the successful treatment of a severely traumatised 13-year old refugee child.

This article presents the results of a research project whose objective was to describe and analyse how people seeking asylum in the Netherlands² make sense of their experience. The broader aim of this study was to provide information that could lead to improved mental health care (Kramer, Bala, Dijk van, & öry, 2003). This article accordingly ends with suggestions to implement the study's findings in other countries where refugees face uncertainty.

In this article we describe our experiences with the development of mental health training modules for doctors, nurses, midwives and village health volunteers in the context of a general basic health care programme in Eastern Afghanistan. The article contains references to resources to be used by developing mental health care training modules for health workers.

The tent of stories is a method of engaging refugee children in storytelling and social interaction. Through the tent and a ‘story-stone’ a safe and structured environment is created. Different ways of processing a story are explained. In dealing with stories, children learn to use their imagination as a valuable coping strategy. Like any good method, the ‘tent of stories’ evolved through interaction with the children it was meant for. This article tells the story of the ‘tent of stories’ itself.

This article describes the problems of former Ethiopian soldiers with their reintegration into civil life. During an anthropological field study, 60 excombatants were interviewed. They reported feeling frustrated about the lack of interest in their living conditions on the part of the Ethiopian public and Ethiopian and Western Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs). They felt that they had no future perspective. Some of them admitted knowing former soldiers who had contracted HIV/AIDS, or who were guilty of criminal violence.