14/10/2025
𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐅𝐅 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒
Meet Gerard Zra and read to his story
"In 2021, I began my journey with IOM - UN Migration Cameroon in Maroua, Cameroon, as a National Protection Assistant. With nearly a decade of experience as a clinical psychologist, but nothing could have prepared me for this encounter with her; a young internally displaced mother who had lost everything to Boko Haram violence.
One day during our mobile clinics in a crisis-affected community, she entered carrying her six-month-old baby on her back and holding the hand of her four-year-old daughter. I could see she was in shock, clearly distressed. In one terrible night, she had lost her husband and her home while fleeing Boko Haram violence in Cameroon’s Far North.
During our first three sessions, she did not say a word. She sat in silence, her arms wrapped tightly around her children, her eyes fixed on the ground. The intensity of her pain felt different, so raw and consuming. I questioned how to reach her, especially as a man.
But through IOM’s community-based Mental Health and Psychological Social Support approach, I organized group sessions with other displaced women, using activities to create a safe and healing space. In the fourth session, as she was braiding another woman’s hair, she quietly hummed a lullaby in Fulfulde, her dialect. It was the first time I heard her voice. Over the following weeks, she gradually found her voice again.
She not only healed but transformed. She became one of our community protection agents, dedicating herself to supporting other women who had survived similar ordeals. Today, she runs a sewing business in a site for displaced people, and her children now attend school.
Watching her reclaim her dignity and rebuild her future has been one of the most profound experiences of my life.
Over the past four years with IOM - UN Migration Cameroon, I have learned that our work starts with assistance but ultimately restores dignity and hope. In helping others find their voice, I found a deeper understanding of my own purpose. IOM - UN Migration Cameroon has taught me that in order to help others, we must first take care of ourselves."
