• Age: 13 to 18
• Grade: 8 to 12

Eve Mills Allen, a New Brunswick mental health therapist, has written the profoundly moving story of Jeremias, who at the age of 11 led his family to safety during the Guatemalan genocide against the Mayan peoples. Jeremias breaks the silence as he shares his memories with the author, and we learn how inadequate our mental health system is to fully heal those traumatized by war and genocide.

Eve Mills Allen's profile page

Jody Claus' profile page

Jeremias Tecu's profile page

Eve Mills Allen is a mental health therapist in Moncton, New Brunswick. She holds a MA in Creative Writing and a MEd in Counselling Psychology,and worked as a journalist for 30+ years, supplied writing services for businesses and magazines, and wrote for TV shows on APTN. She taught Life Writing classes at the university and therapeutic writing workshops, mostly in First Nations communities. She is a member of the Moncton Writer’s group and NB Federation of Writers. Her 2002 memoir, Little White Squaw: A White Woman’s Story of Abuse, Addiction and Reconciliation, coauthored by Kenneth J Harvey, was published by Beech Holme Publishing, and is now with Dundurn Press. Her book for young children, Moli Musquash and the Seven Deadlies, and The Friendly Feelings Kit was used in Fredericton-area elementary schools. She has won several short story contests including third place in the Canadian Authors Association prize for narrative nonfiction, published in the 2019 anthology, Re-creating Our Common Chord.

This book takes you into the heart of the healing process of storytelling between a compassionate

listener and a refugee survivor of horrific cruelty and injustice. The safe space created by

unconditional acceptance and positive regard informs us about how an empathic approach can respond

to the needs of trauma survivors.

Jeremias’ story points to the lack of culturally sensitive mental health services that recognize

the burden of carrying untold stories of trauma. A lack of compassionate social services for

survivors of atrocious injustices will only serve to send the survivors underground and reinforce

fear and shame. In order to support the successful integration of refugees into our Canadian

society, we must rise to the task of developing trauma-based and culturally sensitive mental health

services.

- Sandra deVink, retired social work professor at St. Thomas University (1985-2014)