Institute for International Health and Development - Staff Profiles

Dr Carola Eyber

Areas of interest

• Children, childhood & development
• Psychosocial well-being in situations of armed conflict
• Healing practices and systems
• Religion, refugees & armed conflict
• Participatory monitoring and evaluation

Biographical statement

Carola Eyber is a psychologist whose current interests include children living in challenging environments and the strategies they develop to deal with these challenges. She also has a particular interest in local approaches and responses to distress caused by armed conflict and displacement. Carola co-ordinates the modules on ‘Psychosocial Interventions with War-affected Populations’ and ‘Health Related Research’.

Originally from South Africa Carola has been involved in community development work in various capacities for the past 18 years. Children and adolescents have formed a major focus of this work which has included children affected by armed conflict, child poverty, street children and child labour issues. This work has taken Carola to many sub-Saharan countries particularly Angola, Uganda, Eritrea and Sierra Leone. More recently she has worked with Roma children in Bulgaria. Carola has also focused on issues of psychosocial well-being following armed conflict and ways in which local strategies can be supported. Her doctoral work on approaches to psychosocial well-being in Angola investigated, amongst others, the role that healers play in promoting well-being and recovery of individuals and communities. Carola also has an interest in participatory monitoring and evaluation and has trained and supervised people in how to use these techniques for evaluation purposes.

Currently she is developing research on religious participation as a resource for psychosocial well-being for refugees in Scotland and South Africa.

Carola welcomes applications from students who are interested in PhD topics related to psychosocial well-being, forced migration issues, children and young people in adversity and poverty studies.

Recent publications

Eyber, C. and Ager, A. (2004). Researching young people’s experiences of war: Participatory methods and the trauma discourse in Angola. In J. Boyden and J. De Berry (Eds.), Children and youth on the front line. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Eyber, C. (2004). Forced migrant children and youth in Johannesburg. In L. Landau (Ed.), Forced migrants in the new Johannesburg. Towards a local government response. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand.
Boyden, J., Eyber, C., Feeny, T. and Scott, C. (2003). Children and poverty. Voices of children: Experiences and perspectives from Belarus, Bolivia, India. Kenya and Sierra Leone. Richmond VA: Christian Children’s Fund.
Loughry, M. and Eyber, C. (2003). Psychosocial concepts in humanitarian work with children. A review of the concepts and related literature. Washington DC: The National Academies Press.
Eyber, C. and Ager, A. (2003). Poverty and displacement: Youth agency in Angola. In S. Carr and T. Sloan (Eds.), Community psychology and global poverty. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Eyber, C. and Ager, A. (2002). Conselho: psychological healing in displaced communities in Angola. The Lancet, 360, p. 871.
Eyber, C. (1998). Humane approach to refugees. Crossings, 2 (2). Cape Town: SAMP. Eyber, C. (1998). Include us in policy-making. Crossings, 2 (2). Cape Town: SAMP. Eyber, C., Dyer, D. and Versfeld, R. (1997). Resisting racism: A teacher’s guide to equality in education. Cape Town: IDASA.

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