An Interview with Haylie Wright
One of ChildVoice’s core tenets is the promotion of research in helping child victims of war and exploitation recover from their trauma. In light of that, we were pleased that Haylie Wright, a master’s degree student at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, recently cited ChildVoice as a model nonprofit organization in her master’s dissertation (equivalent to a master’s thesis in the US). Haylie’s focus was on the therapeutic benefits of sports activities (and adjacent activities such as art, dance, and drama) as a tool to enhance the efficacy of psychosocial healing for war-affected youth. Although she was unable to visit our facilities in Uganda, Haylie interviewed multiple staff members both in the US and Uganda to complement her research.
We recently spoke with Haylie to discuss her motivations, her research, and her thoughts regarding ChildVoice’s work and mission. (Abridged for clarity.)
ChildVoice (CV): Tell us about your background. What were your own personal experiences that formed your worldview and brought you to your academic path?
Haylie Wright (HW): I’m Kiwi-American. I grew up with a kind of awareness of all things international. I’m very much social justice oriented.
By the time the “stop Kony” stuff was happening, I was in high school or intermediate years. I was very much just kind of developing as a human and trying to find my voice in a world.
But probably since I was about eight or nine years old, I was like, I'm going to go move to the continent of Africa, preferably Kenya. . . So, just like kind of developing so I was like I'm just going to move to East Africa. That's all I've ever wanted with my whole life.
And when I got to my gap year [after high school] and I went and taught in Uganda for a few months, in a model that I definitely wouldn't do now. The school needed a teacher and couldn't afford to pay a substitute teacher or an interim teacher for a teacher on maternity leave. Of course, now I would really consider it inappropriate to have a post-high school student just go. So, I went into Uganda and I had a classroom full of South Sudanese refugees.
When I was in Uganda, I experienced acute trauma. There was an accident. . . and having seen dead bodies, pulling dead bodies off the road, experiencing just kind of like a war-like scene – a fraction of the experience that these people have gone through, and the trauma.
Also, I already kind of was aware of child soldiers, and. . . I was just really dissatisfied with the fact that we were not dealing with childhood trauma well.
CV: In your dissertation, you focus on the therapeutic benefit of sport when working with child victims of war. What do you think is the core benefit of sport and related activities that creates an environment that engenders the healing process?
HW: I would argue that sport, alongside arts, is necessary for the healing process. I did art and drama therapy [myself]. I could see how sport has been a place of community and purpose. And drama is uniquely positioned to help people express emotion.
CV: When you look at our staff members who are actually doing the work in the field, and how challenging that work is, what was your impression of Winnie and other staff members you interviewed?
HW: When you see and hear their passion for this work, it is so personal. Speaking to the counselors at ChildVoice. . . especially to Winnie, but also all the counselors, they believe in [the work]. They see it. They're working like intimately with these girls. They call them their own. They know it. And they see the lives that are being changed. If you are actually patient enough to sit and listen, and hear that, and hear their passion for their work, not only does it make easier for us to see this is so personal. How could you not be passionate about it?
CV: Is there anything you learned from your interviewees that you did not expect?
HW: I was extremely encouraged by the level of understanding of complexity. They were all articulating the issue and what needs to be done.
CV: We talked about what you thought ChildVoice is doing particularly well. What do you think we could be doing better? It's always helpful to get to get viewpoints from outside of the organization, because all of us, including people in the field, can get tunnel vision after a while and not see something that an outside observer might see.
HW: I appreciate the humility. That speaks magnitudes to ChildVoice’s culture. Research-wise, ChildVoice is checking off all the boxes.
I visited an organization in Zambia. They have programs similar to the Lukome Center, and their program is 3 to 5 years. They have a welcome center where students stay for 6 months. And because of funding, they are able to do it for 3 to 5 years on average. Some people stay for longer. That’s something that I would hope for ChildVoice. because they’ve been around for 20 years, and they now have 22 schools across the city, as well as their residential center. So, one thing I would hope for ChildVoice is that if you could increase your budget, you could do a 3-to-5-year program.
Also, one of the counselors was talking about when a girl becomes educated and they go back to their communities, their families rely on them for money. If the girl does not get as much as she is expected, the girl might think “life was easier when I wasn’t working.” I would love to see that explored.
CV: Do you have any final thoughts or comments?
HW: Interestingly, as a side note, I’m going to meet Princess Anne in a few weeks at an event for sport, with a professor who has taken me under his wing! I’ll be in some big fancy circles. My first thought is to talk about ChildVoice.
CV: That’s awesome! By all means, talk about us.
HW: Absolutely, I will!
CV: Thank you so much for this conversation.