Assessment of psychosocial challenges of internally displaced women in Dalori Camp, Maiduguri: The need for counselling services

Abstract

Due to insurgency in the North Eastern part of Nigeria, especially Borno State, a lot of people have been displaced from their homes especially women and children. So camps were established for the Internally Displaced Persons. Dalori Camp was one of the camps for the Internally Displaced. This study wastherefore carried out to assess the psychosocial challenges of internally displaced women and the need for counselling services in Dalori camp, Maiduguri. The objective of the study was to assess the psychological challenges among internally displaced women. The
research design used for this study wasa descriptive study design. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 30 respondents out of 280 women. A well-structured questionnaire titled, 'Psychosocial Challenges of Internally Displaced Women Questionnaire' (PCIDWQ) was used to collect data from the respondents.Data was analyzed using frequency, percentages, mean, s tandard deviation and one-sample t-test to test the  hypotheses. The result showed that 93.3% of the respondents have lost their loved ones during the attack, 90% of the women have lost their
properties which is a psychological challenge of insurgency, 93.3% of respondents agreed that lack of income generating activities is a problem in the camp, 80% of the respondents disagreed that government gives special support to nursing mothers in camp, which is a social effect of insurgency. Based on the findings in the study, it was recommended that there was high need for counselling services for internally displaced women, and that government non-governmental organizations should improve the quality of life faced by the internally displaced women.

Keywords: Assessment, Psychosocial, Challenges, Displaced, Women, Counselling, Maiduguri