What We Do
Our activities are centred on psychosocial support (MHPSS) and here we focus on Value Based Counseling (VBC) according to the method we developed. Our international involvement includes local capacity building, low-threshold self-help, and psychosocial peacebuilding. We have been working on developing an innovative care structure for refugees in Germany since 2015/16: We use resources from a migration society for successful integration.
IRAQ
Psychosocial Resilience and Capacity Building in North-West Iraq
Where We Operate
Selected Projects
GERMANY
saba app: a pilot project for improved access to mental health care for refugees
Germany
saba app: a pilot project for improved access to mental health care for refugees
The aim of the project is to offer psychosocial support to as many people with refugee or migration background in Germany as possible – at a low threshold, digitally and individually.
GERMANY
IPSO’s Involvement in Germany
Germany
IPSO’s Involvement in Germany
IPSO’s involvement in Germany started back in 2015/16, when Germany took in almost one million refugees. During the arguments between the protagonists of a welcoming culture on the one hand and supporters of a border fence policy mobilised against it on the other, it quickly became clear that there were not enough professionals available to be able to provide psychosocial support to the…
GERMANY
Developing a Sustainable VBC Infrastructure for Providing Psychosocial Care to Refugees and People with a Migration Background in Hamburg
Germany
Developing a Sustainable VBC Infrastructure for Providing Psychosocial Care to Refugees and People with a Migration Background in Hamburg
The aim of this work is to develop sustainable skills and structures by introducing low-threshold psychosocial support for refugees and people with a migration background in Hamburg, which will complement the psychosocial centers: low-threshold psychosocial support as an aid for self-help, which has an impact at individual, community and societal levels.
GERMANY
S4S – Support For Supporters: RAZOM – Psychosocial Support for Full-time and Voluntary Supporters Helping Refugees – Focusing on Ukraine
Germany
S4S – Support For Supporters: RAZOM – Psychosocial Support for Full-time and Voluntary Supporters Helping Refugees – Focusing on Ukraine
The many people who fled to Germany in 2015 and 2016 and – more recently – the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022, triggered an impressive wave of solidarity and support. As a humanitarian organisation that has developed the Value Based Counseling (VBC) method, an innovative form of support for people with flight and migration experiences who are counseled by…
GERMANY
Psychosocial Online Counseling for Refugees in Malteser Shelters in North Rhine-Westphalia and, in Nationwide Rollout, in Saxony, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria
Germany
Psychosocial Online Counseling for Refugees in Malteser Shelters in North Rhine-Westphalia and, in Nationwide Rollout, in Saxony, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria
In cooperation with Malteser Werke IPSO has been providing care points for psychosocial counseling in Malteser shelters in North Rhine-Westphalia since January 2021 through a specially-developed sub-domain of ipso-care.com. The pilot project was extended by two more years at the end of 2021 due to…
GERMANY
Face-to-face Empowerment – Establishing a Psychosocial Counseling Center For and With People With a Flight/Migration History in Berlin
Germany
Face-to-face Empowerment – Establishing a Psychosocial Counseling Center For and With People With a Flight/Migration History in Berlin
The project enabled us to establish our IPSO Care Center Berlin as an open and friendly place that provides psychosocial support for migrants and refugees. Thanks to the support from the SKala initiative, IPSO’s counseling services were made accessible to everyone in Berlin and the surrounding areas and in their mother tongues. Nationwide awareness of Ipso-care as an online counseling…
GERMANY
Model Project for Preventing Radicalisation: Face-to-face Empowerment Against Islamist Orientation
Germany
Model Project for Preventing Radicalisation: Face-to-face Empowerment Against Islamist Orientation
IPSO’s model project for preventing radicalisation was aimed at young people between 17–27 who are at risk, members and sympathisers of radical scenes and groups and their parents, family members and other related people.
Afghanistan
The “Cultural Container Project” and its First Implementation in Ten Provinces of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
The “Cultural Container Project” and its First Implementation in Ten Provinces of Afghanistan
The aim of the “Cultural Container Project” was to strengthen civil society and promote social peace and social cohesion, which we and our teams in Afghanistan were able to implement very successfully for the first time in ten provinces in 2015 and 2016: Badakhshan, Balkh, Bamyan, Herat, Jawzjan, Kabul, Kandahar, Kapisa, Laghman and Nangarhar.
GERMANY
Community for Tomorrow – A pilot project by IPSO and the District Office Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
Germany
Community for Tomorrow – A pilot project by IPSO and the District Office Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
Our project ‘Community for Tomorrow’ starts in September 2024. It aims to empower the residents of the shelters in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg to interact with their communities in a trauma-sensitive and resilience-promoting way, thereby creating a space of mutual support, belonging, dignity and safety.
AFGHANISTAN
IPSO’s Involvement in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
IPSO’s Involvement in Afghanistan
IPSO’s involvement in Afghanistan dates back to Inge Missmahl’s work in the country that began in 2004, which led to the founding of IPSO g GmbH in Germany in 2008 and to establishing a locally registered non-governmental organisation in 2011. In 2022, Ipso Afghanistan became an independent local organization and has partnered with the Germany-based Ipso gGmbH on various projects in…
GERMANY
VBC Training and Employing Ukrainian Psychologists to Provide Psychosocial Support to Refugees in Germany
Germany
VBC Training and Employing Ukrainian Psychologists to Provide Psychosocial Support to Refugees in Germany
This project focuses on the advanced training of experienced Ukrainian psychologists in VBC and their subsequent employment (10 full-time positions) for providing psychosocial support to Ukrainians through individual counseling. The certified counselors work online from the care points in the asylum shelters and in Berlin as well as in large arrival centres such as Tegel Airport with around…
IRAQ
VBC Training and Employing Ukrainian Psychosocial Resilience and Capacity Building in North-West Iraq
Iraq
Psychosocial Resilience and Capacity Building in North-West Iraq
Since the end of large-scale military operations against ISIL in 2017, Iraq has made significant reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts: Roads have been restored, local markets reopened, public water and electricity services restored, and housing, health facilities and schools rebuilt. As of June 2022, of the six million people displaced as a result of ISIL’s June 2014 takeover of much…
GERMANY
Psychosocial Skills for Refugees Living in LAF Shelters
Germany
Psychosocial Skills for Refugees Living in LAF Shelters
Since 2018, our experienced project team has been regularly visiting all of the Berlin refugee shelters administered by LAF in Berlin on a rotating basis to provide on-site psychosocial counseling and various group services. The project is an important and effective addition to the work of the counselors at the…
Afghanistan
“Kolba-e Ma” – Social Hubs for Afghan Returnees in Kabul and Nangahar Provinces
Afghanistan
“Kolba-e Ma” – Social Hubs for Afghan Returnees in Kabul and Nangahar Provinces
Afghan society has experienced large-scale population movements inside and outside the country for several decades. The project focused on supporting the reintegration of returnees which has been a big challenge for both, returnees as well as host communities, not only in social-cultural terms but also with regard to their integration into local labour markets in Kabul and Nangarhar…
Ukraine
Psychosocial Care for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and War-affected Population in Ukraine
Ukraine
Psychosocial Care for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and War-affected Population in Ukraine
The project is a joint initiative of the Rotary Clubs of Kharkiv and Konstanz-Mainau, Ukrainian mental health specialists Volodymyr Korostiy, Oleksandr Polishchuk, Oksana Genderetska and Anna Krapivnyk from Bohomolets Kyiv National Medical University, Kharkiv National Medical University, Chernivstsi Bukovyna State Medical University, and Inge Missmahl, founder and Managing Director of Ipso.
Haiti
Sociocultural and Psychosocial Work and the Establishment of Sociocultural and Psychosocial Centers for Traumatised People in the Earthquake Region of Haiti
Haiti
Sociocultural and Psychosocial Work and the Establishment of Sociocultural and Psychosocial Centers for Traumatised People in the Earthquake Region of Haiti
The project, implemented in cooperation with Caritas international, was intended as a sustainable contribution to helping the Haitian population to help themselves, i.e. social and psychosocial capacity development that would provide support and care to people…
GERMANY
Ipso-support for Helfende Wände
Germany
Ipso-support for Helfende Wände
Helfende Wände is an initiative of Wunderflats and the non-profit organization ProjectTogether. The project is jointly funded by the European Union and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). In this project, people offering accommodation are connected…
AFGHANISTAN
Psychosocial and Mental Health Center Kabul
Afghanistan
Psychosocial and Mental Health Center Kabul
VBC was integrated into the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) in 2011–2016 with support from the EU and the Federal Foreign Office. The state health system’s capacities improved considerably during this time, but they still showed great potential for expansion in view of the huge need for action. This is why we established our Psychosocial and Mental Health Center Kabul in 2016 and handed…
GERMANY
Gentle Project – Support Groups for Men and Women in LAF Shelters Against Domestic Violence
Germany
Gentle Project – Support Groups for Men and Women in LAF Shelters Against Domestic Violence
The “Gentle Project”, which has been implemented in Berlin accommodation since October 2022 with support from the State Office for Refugee Affairs and was expanded to include Ukrainian and Russian refugees in July 2023, provides the environment needed for dealing with the taboo topic of domestic violence. More LAF accommodations have been successively integrated and there were…
International
Mental Health and Psychosocial Well-being for All Through a Professional and Accessible Digital Platform
International
Mental Health and Psychosocial Well-being for All Through a Professional and Accessible Digital Platform
This project aimed to support disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, especially migrants and refugees, through low-threshold access to VBC and providing individual counseling as well as group sessions. We established a multicultural team of highly professional counselors qualified in our VBC method who used their Arabic, Dari, English, Farsi, Greek, Hindi, Italian and Portuguese mother tongues…
GERMANY
Establishing an Innovative Psychosocial Care Infrastructure in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – A Cooperative Project between IPSO and Malteser Werke
Germany
Establishing an Innovative Psychosocial Care Infrastructure in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – A Cooperative Project between IPSO and Malteser Werke
In this pilot project, IPSO, in cooperation with Malteser Werke, has been training sixteen people with a migration or refugee background who have had previous training in education, psychology or social work in Value Based Counseling since February 2019. Ten graduates from the one-year full-time training course in Rostock were employed…
Afghanistan
Psychosocial Support for IDPs and Returnees in Balkh, Kabul and Nangarhar
Afghanistan
Psychosocial Support for IDPs and Returnees in Balkh, Kabul and Nangarhar
Statistics from the International Organization for Migration show that between 2012 and 2019 more than 3 million Afghans returned to Afghanistan from neighbouring and other foreign countries. More than 4 million people were displaced internally during the same period. Many of them lived in and are still living in makeshift camps that are notorious for their cramped living conditions and lack of…
GERMANY
Developing a Sustainable Infrastructure for Value Based Counseling for the Psychosocial Care of Refugees and People with a Migration Background in Thuringen
Germany
Developing a Sustainable Infrastructure for Value Based Counseling for the Psychosocial Care of Refugees and People with a Migration Background in Thuringen
The “Psychosocial counseling and support for refugees/people with experience of flight and migration” project started in 2016 to 2017 with the advanced training of 30 refugees living in Thuringen to become psychosocial counselors in order to establish a comprehensive, low-threshold, mother-tongue and culturally sensitive psychosocial counseling network for refugees in Thuringen and…