Hasta La Gadget!

In Uganda’s massive Bidibidi camp, which is home to more than 272,000 South Sudanese refugees, aid workers are trying to identify and help sexual violence survivors – despite a dearth of resources.

BIDIBIDI CAMP, Uganda – Grace sits staring vacantly ahead, her hands tightly clasped in her lap. She is 16 years old but has a tiny frame that makes her look no older than 13. Underneath her checkered school dress, a small bump sticks out. In four months’ time, she is due to give birth to her stepfather’s child. He raped her after soldiers attacked her village in South Sudan and her mother ran away to escape the shooting.

“I wanted to starve to death,” she whispers, speaking through a translator.

Sexual violence is an everyday threat to women and girls in South Sudan, where civil war broke out in 2013. There are cases, like Grace’s, involving attackers known to the victim, as well as a torrent of rape allegations against government and rebel troops.

In December, Yasmin Sooka, chair of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, said the scale of sexual violence in the country had reached “crisis proportions” and described the levels of gang rape as “epic.” In addition, she said, widespread stigma leads to underreporting of sexual violence.

In Uganda’s Bidibidi refugee camp, where Grace now lives, mental health workers are attempting to fight that stigma and help survivors heal from trauma. Opened in August 2016, 25 miles (40km) from the border with South Sudan, Bidibidi is one of the world’s largest refugee camps. It hosts more than 272,000 South Sudanese refugees, 86 percent of whom are women and children, according to UNHCR.

The U.N.’s refugee agency has documented 570 cases of sexual or gender-based violence perpetrated on refugees living in the camp. Some of those incidents took place in South Sudan – a recent U.N. survey of internally displaced people living in camps in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, found around 70 percent of women had been raped since the conflict erupted, with 78 percent forced to watch someone else being sexually violated. But there are also women who have been assaulted inside Bidibidi, says the UNHCR. With limited police presence in the camp, women are particularly vulnerable to attack when collecting firework. And without more resources, health experts say, many of the violence survivors in the camp will never get the help they need to cope with the aftermath of their attack.

For now, Grace is being spared that fate. She is one of 36 victims of sexual violence receiving cognitive behavioral therapy from Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO), the sole NGO providing specialist psychosocial services to the camp’s population.

“Some of the girls were raped by soldiers as they tried to escape the country,” and are now pregnant, says TPO social worker Shifah Uzamukunda. “We encourage them to share their experiences, and teach them about trauma.” The organization also provides therapeutic activities like dancing, drama and singing.

At one of four women’s centers in Bidibidi run by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), around 80 women sit on straw mats, chatting. In a corner, a group of women are embroidering cotton sheets, while outside, another group cooks mandazi, an East African fried bread, and a third group builds fuel-efficient stoves, all of which the women will sell within the camp.

About a quarter of the women are rape survivors and have access to one-on-one counselling.

“At first it was difficult to get people to talk about sexual violence,” says Zuleika Munduria, a program officer for the IRC. “They would ask, ‘I want to know my [HIV] status; I don’t trust my husband.’ But we would find out they had been raped and that was why they wanted to have an HIV test.” However, she says they slowly started gaining the confidence to speak.

The women practice relaxation and meditation techniques, learn life skills such as baking and sewing, and take part in group counseling where they are encouraged to talk openly about what they have suffered. Today, the women are vocal about their struggles.

“I [was suffering from] psychological torture when I came here, but now those thoughts are gone,” says one woman, who asked not to be named.

Another woman, who also asked to remain anonymous, says, “I’m now free. I call this place Help.”

Beyond sexual violence, countless South Sudanese have witnessed family, friends and neighbors lined up and killed, and had their homes looted and torched. In February, the U.N. announced that the number of South Sudanese refugees fleeing the war had reached 1.5 million.

Of the 724,000 South Sudanese refugees in Uganda, UNICEF estimates that 64 percent are children and says that “most refugee children from South Sudan are experiencing some form of psychosocial distress,” according to UNICEF.

But mental health services are in short supply, as the emergency response is already vastly stretched to provide basic water, food and medical needs. UNICEF says only 36 percent of the $251 million requested by the United Nations to cope with the South Sudanese refugee situation in Uganda has been received. “The South Sudan refugee emergency has been chronically and severely underfunded, and as a result provision of essential services on the rapidly growing refugee population of Bidibidi and other settlements remains a challenge,” says Jens Hessemann, senior field coordinator for UNHCR Uganda.

And without help now, says Dorothy Namara, a clinical psychologist for TPO working in Bidibidi camp, many survivors of sexual violence will carry their trauma with them for the rest of their lives.

“Not everyone knows they are suffering,” she says. “It imprints on children’s memories for a long time and can lead to personality change. It is not something that just goes away.”

This article originally appeared on Women & Girls Hub. For weekly updates, you can sign up to the Women & Girls Hub email list.

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Fallen Star

How to do it: Start in high plank, with the center of your wrists under the outside edge of your shoulders. (This is a little wider than most people think.) Draw your right knee to your left elbow, extend your right leg out underneath your left side and lift your left arm up toward the ceiling, so you’re balancing on both feet and your right arm. Engage your left hip muscles and lift your hips up. Hold for 3 to 5 breaths, then move back to high plank and repeat on the other side. Repeat 2 to 4 sets.

Make it harder: From Fallen Star, lift your bottom leg up off the ground and pulse it up for 8 reps. Repeat on the other side for 2 to 4 sets.

Boat Pose

How to do it: Start in a seated position. Bend your knees and bring your hands behind your knees to lift your chest and draw your shoulder blades together on your back. Focus on lengthening your spine. Lift one foot off the mat, then the other, until your shins are parallel with the floor, or extend your legs straight, then extend your arms forward. Hold for 1 to 3 breaths and repeat 4 to 6 sets.

Make it harder: Put a yoga block between your thighs. Don’t have a block? Fold a towel in half then roll it up and use that instead. If you want even more of a challenge, try taking the block between your hands and pressing your palms into the block, then twisting side to side while keeping your spine long and extending the opposite leg long in front of you.

Table Top to High Plank

How to do it: Start in Table Top pose and check that your hands are active, with your fingers open wide and center of your wrists under the outside edge of your shoulders. Step your feet back to plank pose and lower your hips in line with your head and heels. Think about drawing your tailbone toward your heels and pulling your front ribs up toward your shoulders. Hold for 3 to 5 breaths, then move back to Table Top. Repeat 4 to 6 sets.

Make it harder: From High Plank, bring your right knee to your right elbow, then back to plank. Bring your right knee to your nose or forehead, then back to plank. Bring your right knee to your left elbow, then back to Plank. Rest in Table Top pose, then repeat on left side.

Donkey Kicks

How to do it: Start on all fours and step your legs back into Downward Facing Dog pose. Step your feet in about a foot to a “short” Downward Facing Dog. Bend your knees, draw your thighs together, bring your shoulders over your wrists and look at the mat between your hands. With control, jump your feet together and off the mat, and move your pelvis over your shoulders. Repeat 5 to 8 sets. You can do this against a wall if you’re worried about keeping your balance.

Make it harder: Add a block or rolled towel between your thighs as you jump. This intensifies the inner-thigh and pelvic-floor work and helps you focus on controlling your jump up and down.

Forearm Plank

How to do it: Lie with your belly on the mat. Come up to your forearms and bring your elbows underneath your shoulders. Even though your elbows are not moving, it should feel like you’re dragging them to the back of your mat as you simultaneously lift the pit of your abdomen up and slowly peel your ribs, belly, hips, thighs and knees off the mat to Forearm Plank. Hold for 20 seconds then roll back down. Repeat 3 to 5 sets.

Make it harder: Put a yoga block between your thighs, then return to Forearm Plank. Lift your right foot off the mat and bend your knee to 90 degrees. Squeeze the block with your thighs, then press your heel to the sky. Repeat for 16 to 24 reps. Roll down to rest, with your forehead on your stacked forearms, then repeat with the left leg.

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Trans leaders including YouTube star Gigi Gorgeous, “Transparent” actress Alexandra Gray, photographer Amos Mac and writer and producer Jacob Tobia, along with many others, have come together with GLAAD and Instagram to release an inspiring new video and photography series in honor of Transgender Day Of Visibility.

According to an email sent to The Huffington Post, the project, known as #KindComments, “captures the moment of love, support, and visibility as these trans advocates and influencers read aloud inspiring Instagram comments that have posted from their followers on their accounts.”

“For trans day of visibility, I wanted to work with Instagram to draw attention to the resilience of trans people, to the fact that we love and support each other no matter what,” Tobia told The Huffington Post. “By focusing on the ways that trans folks are affirming each other online, this video serves as a sort of love letter to trans people around the world.”

Mac added, “It was so inspiring to photograph this group ― some whom I consider to be friends and peers, along with folks I was just meeting for the first time whose stories I’ve followed for awhile. You could feel the love in the room!”

Check out the video above and Mac’s photos from the series below. For more on Trans Day of Visiblity, head here.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Kim Kardashian wants to have a third baby.

“I’m going to try to have one more baby,” Kardashian says in a new promo for an upcoming episode of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”

But a third baby could be very risky for the reality TV star, who revealed in an episode last fall that she had experienced a serious complication involving her placenta during both of her first two pregnancies. [9 Uncommon Conditions That Pregnancy May Bring]

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Remember the, insane record-shattering flight of a jet-powered hoverboard? UK inventor Richard Browning thought that riding on top of a jet pack wasn’t crazy enough, so he strapped six kerosene-powered microjets to his arms. That transformed him into…