Foreningshuset Sundholm 8, Sundholmsvej 8, 2300 Copenhagen S
NUNCA MAS supports local organizations in mitigating mental, physical and social suffering after gross human rights violations and preventing future violations by taking its point of departure in local needs, local conditions and local resources. Likewise, the local partners will take the lead in relation to all the project phases: from identification of the problem, to the design and implementation of the project interventions and in the evaluation of the project.
NUNCA MAS will support partners through the professional capacities and experience of its members at all levels of co-operation. This will involve documentation, monitoring, evaluation, and systematization seen in a development context and when appropriate, the interventions are linked up with research.
NUNCA MAS wishes to support local partners in their work to soothe the pain of people affected by collective violence and give survivors the capacity to individually and collectively strive for recognition and justice. The interventions are an integrated part of the local context and the approaches will accordingly be holistic, integrating the physical, mental, social and spiritual aspects of the empowering process.
NUNCA MAS will make use of its considerable experience in relation to the testimonial therapy method, which is one of the few mental health interventions that naturally integrates healing, empowerment and justice and can be adapted to local traditions and beliefs. The method is relatively simple and easy to transfer locally, even to areas with a lack of skilled mental health specialists.
NUNCA MAS also has considerable experience in pain management, a therapeutic method, which enables victims/survivors to learn to cope with chronic pain due to the human rights violations they have suffered. This approach also interacts actively with the local health traditions.
NUNCA MAS works with the integration of eastern and western approaches to therapy by including mindfulness and other spiritual approaches in its interventions if appropriate to the local context.
NUNCA MAS will work with partners who are engaged institutionally in the prevention of human rights violations by, for instance, addressing the educational, community and health systems through human rights education, etc. Advocacy is therefore a crosscutting issue.
In this regard, NUNCA MAS’s approach to human rights education takes into consideration the reality of the local population in an experiential way, in order to find the mechanisms to substitute the culture of violence with a culture of peace, democracy and respect for human rights.
NUNCA MAS promotes the demand for human rights, through an active citizen participation that works to change policies, laws and socio-political actions to overcome insecurity, violence, impunity and corruption.
NUNCA MAS strengthens communities through integrated programs that enhance the quality of life for the local population through the development of personal, technical and professional competencies that empowers both individuals and the community as a whole. The driving force behind the integrated programs is sustainability and cooperation with local actors.