Report: The Body Keeps the Score — Epigenetic Signatures of Intergenerational Exposure to Violence
12 April, 2025
What war breaks on the outside can often be rebuilt. What it breaks inside us is far harder to repair.
Buildings collapse and can be reconstructed. Roads torn up can be paved again. But what happens inside the human body—within its cells, its chemistry, its memory—can echo across generations.
This isn’t metaphor. It’s biology.
Recent research published in Scientific Reports by Nature has traced the enduring legacy of trauma through epigenetics—the study of how our experiences, particularly stress and violence, change the way our genes express themselves. The findings are clear: war doesn’t end when the bombs stop falling. It writes itself into our DNA.
Trauma Etched in the Genome: A Scientific Look at Epigenetic Transmission Across Generations
In one of the most comprehensive studies to date, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, in collaboration with Radboud University and Syrian medical institutions, conducted a cross-generational epigenetic analysis on 100 Syrian refugee families living in Lebanon. The study, published in Scientific Reports in 2025, sought to explore how war-related trauma could be biologically encoded—not just within individuals, but across generations.
These weren’t random alterations. They were precisely located in genes related to stress response, immune regulation, and neurodevelopment. In other words, trauma didn’t just alter memories. It physically reprogrammed how the body prepares for—and reacts to—stress.
The focus of the research was DNA methylation, a key epigenetic mechanism that regulates gene expression without altering the DNA sequence itself. Methylation typically occurs at cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites and can activate or silence specific genes based on environmental influences. When sustained stress—such as that experienced in war—occurs, it can alter methylation levels, resulting in long-term shifts in gene activity.
To examine this, the researchers collected saliva samples from three generations within each family:
G1: Older adults who directly experienced war, torture, and displacement.
G2: Their adult children, many of whom were born during the conflict or early displacement.
G3: Grandchildren who were either born during displacement or had no direct exposure to violence themselves.
What they found was startling. Compared to a control population, the refugee families exhibited significant differential methylation in several key genetic loci. These weren’t arbitrary or incidental changes—they were targeted in regions of the genome that are functionally involved in:
Stress regulation, particularly genes within the glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1) pathway, which controls cortisol sensitivity and feedback within the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.
Immune function, including genes such as FKBP5, which modulates inflammation and the cellular stress response.
Neurodevelopmental processes, especially genes associated with synaptic plasticity, emotional regulation, and memory formation—areas particularly sensitive to early-life adversity.
For example, elevated methylation levels were observed in the promoter region of NR3C1, a gene essential for mediating the body’s response to cortisol. When methylation increases in this region, the gene’s expression decreases—meaning the body becomes less efficient at turning off the stress response, resulting in prolonged physiological arousal and vulnerability to mood disorders. This epigenetic pattern, first observed in individuals exposed to wartime torture and displacement, was also present in their children and grandchildren, even when those younger generations had not directly experienced violence.
Similarly, changes in the FKBP5 gene, known to regulate the body’s sensitivity to glucocorticoids and inflammation, were passed down from the G1 generation to the G3 generation. These modifications are linked to heightened inflammatory responses and are believed to increase the risk for anxiety, PTSD, and autoimmune conditions.
To confirm these findings, researchers performed pathway enrichment analyses, which revealed a concentration of methylation changes in genes associated with:
Neuroendocrine response to trauma
Pro-inflammatory cytokine regulation
Neural development pathways, including those that shape the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex—all critical for emotional regulation, memory, and decision-making.
Moreover, the persistence of these methylation patterns—across multiple generations—suggests they are not temporary adaptations but stable, transgenerational epigenetic marks. The study authors proposed that germline transmission or sustained maternal stress during pregnancy could be primary vectors, where the developing foetus is exposed to cortisol and inflammatory signals that reshape its epigenetic landscape even before birth.
“We are seeing the molecular fingerprints of war embedded in the biology of entire families,” said Dr. Aschwin van der Meer, lead author of the study. “These are not merely emotional scars. They are biological ones—written into the genome, passed silently from one generation to the next.”
This research offers powerful evidence that trauma is not simply a psychological phenomenon—it is a biological inheritance. A form of embodied memory that, once written, can take generations to erase.
What’s most alarming is not just that these marks exist, but that they persist, even in the absence of new trauma. Children and grandchildren of survivors carry altered physiological baselines—marked by increased stress reactivity, reduced resilience, and immune dysregulation—not because of what they endured, but because of what their ancestors lived through.
Three-generation study design.
(a) The research strategy was designed to test contrasting exposures to violence (direct, prenatal, germline) for changes in DNAm in three groups of three-generation Syrian families. The violence exposures of three generations (F1, F2, F3) for each group are indicated—the 1980 group was directly, prenatally, and germline exposed in the F1 generation, the 2011 group was directly and prenatally exposed in the F2 generation, and the Control group was unexposed.
Exposure types are colour coded: red = direct exposure, green = prenatal exposure, blue = germline exposure, and yellow = no exposure.
(b) Description of exposure groups and primary analytic exposure comparisons.
Top panel: Average year of birth, type and time of violence exposure, and time of sample collection are shown for each generation in all three groups. Line colour corresponds to exposure type: red = direct exposure, green = prenatal exposure, blue = germline exposure, and yellow = no exposure; dotted line indicates time from oocyte to birth, solid line indicates time from birth to present; vertical orange line indicates year of violence exposure, vertical purple line indicates year of sample collection; righthand labels indicate generation within recruited families: F1 = grandmother, F2 = mother, F3 = child.
Bottom panel: participant groups included in each EWAS exposure analysis. Label colours correspond to the colour legend in (a) and background colours correspond to the background colours in the top panel of (b).
Genome-wide significant differences in site-specific DNA methylation when comparing violence exposure groups and controls.
Forest plots show DNAm levels for loci that reached genome-wide significance (p-value < 6.5 × 10–8) in both robust regression and GEE EWAS when comparing germline exposure to violence (a,b) and direct exposure to violence (c,d) to controls.
Panels (a) and (c) are forest plots of the beta-value differences between all exposures relative to controls for all significant DMPs.
The dots indicate the median difference and bars represent the 95% confidence intervals.
Panels (b) and (d) are boxplots of the distribution of beta-values by violence exposure category; the middle line indicates the median, the box covers the interquartile range, and dots indicate observed beta-values. Exposure types are color coded: red = direct exposure, green = prenatal exposure, blue = germline exposure, and yellow = no exposure.
Gaza: Where Trauma Begins in the Womb
Right now, in Gaza, over 50,000 pregnant women are carrying life beneath drones and war planes, surrounded by the relentless threat of bombardment. These women are not only navigating a warzone, they are navigating lack of access to clean water, food, or medical care. Some are giving birth in tents, others on bloodied floors of overcrowded hospitals or makeshift shelters, with no access to pain relief, skilled birth attendants, or sterile tools.
But the trauma they endure doesn’t just live in the present moment. It’s being biologically etched into the bodies of their unborn children.
The Physiology of Fear: Cortisol and the Prenatal Environment
When a pregnant woman experiences chronic stress, especially of the extreme, life-threatening kind seen in war, her body releases elevated levels of cortisol, the primary hormone involved in the stress response. Unlike acute, short-term stress—which can be adaptive and even beneficial in controlled doses—chronic stress leads to sustained, abnormally high cortisol levels.
Cortisol can cross the placental barrier. This means the foetus is directly exposed to maternal stress chemistry, effectively bathing in neuroendocrine signals that communicate danger. These chemical cues don’t just inform the baby of their current environment—they program their developing brain and physiological systems for life outside the womb.
Epigenetic Programming of the Foetal Brain and Body
Prenatal exposure to chronic stress, especially during the first and second trimesters, is associated with measurable changes in the epigenome, a system of chemical modifications (like DNA methylation and histone modification) that regulate gene expression without altering the underlying DNA sequence.
Research has shown that this form of prenatal programming can alter the expression of genes involved in:
The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis: This is the body’s primary system for responding to stress. Altered gene expression in key components of the HPA axis—such as the NR3C1 gene, which codes for the glucocorticoid receptor—can result in an overactive or dysregulated stress response. This increases the child’s risk for anxiety disorders, depression, and PTSD later in life.
Neurodevelopmental Pathways: Cortisol and other stress hormones can interfere with normal growth of brain regions such as the amygdala (fear processing), hippocampus (memory), and prefrontal cortex (executive functioning). Children prenatally exposed to war trauma may show structural and functional changes in these areas, contributing to difficulty with emotional regulation, cognitive processing, and impulse control.
Immune System Regulation: Prenatal stress has been linked to epigenetic changes in genes associated with immune function, such as IL6 (interleukin-6) and TNF-α (tumour necrosis factor alpha). These changes can leave children more susceptible to autoimmune disorders, inflammatory diseases, and impaired immune resilience across their lifespan.
Observable Outcomes: What Happens After Birth
Infants born to mothers exposed to chronic wartime stress, especially during pregnancy, have been found to be at significantly higher risk for:
Heightened startle and fear responses due to hypersensitivity of the amygdala.
Increased baseline cortisol levels and poor cortisol recovery, which compromise the body's ability to cope with future stressors.
Dysregulated immune responses, leading to higher incidence of infections and allergies.
Attachment and bonding difficulties, particularly when mothers suffer from PTSD, anxiety, or postnatal depression.
Cognitive delays and executive function impairments, affecting memory, learning, and problem-solving.
Elevated risk for psychiatric disorders, including ADHD, anxiety, depression, and even schizophrenia in adulthood.
These outcomes are not theoretical. They have been documented across multiple conflict and refugee settings—in studies of Palestinian, Syrian, Bosnian, Rwandan, and Rohingya populations.
The Intergenerational Burden: Trauma Beyond One Generation
What makes this biological trauma even more devastating is that it doesn’t necessarily stop with the child. Emerging research in human epigenetics suggests that the effects of extreme stress can be passed through the germline. This means that the children of children born in warzones may also inherit altered gene expression related to stress, inflammation, and neural development, even if they themselves grow up in safer environments.
Animal models and human studies alike have found transgenerational epigenetic effects via both maternal and paternal lines. For example:
Changes in DNA methylation in sperm following trauma have been observed to affect stress sensitivity and behaviour in offspring.
In female lines, alterations in maternal cortisol regulation and caregiving behaviours are often replicated in daughters, creating cycles of stress dysregulation.
The Womb as the First Battlefield
In Gaza today, the womb—the one place meant to be a sanctuary—is becoming a biological warzone. Every stressor experienced by the mother, every panic-stricken moment under sirens, every scream or explosion heard, is passed along in chemical whispers to the unborn.
The foetus, which has not yet developed psychological boundaries or a conscious sense of self, is essentially wide open to these signals. With no filter or defense, the unborn child absorbs the trauma of war not just emotionally, but biologically.
These are not invisible wounds. They are measurable. Traceable. Scientific.
And unless the violence ends, the cost will continue to echo through generations—not only in memory and in story, but in blood, brain, and bone.
Encoded in Exile — Epigenetic Imprints of Syria’s Refugee Crisis
For over a decade, the war in Syria has torn through families, homes, and entire communities. Over 14 million Syrians have been displaced, nearly half of them are children. Among the most overlooked are the pregnant women who have fled across borders, carrying not only their unborn children, but the biochemical burden of war.
In refugee camps, abandoned buildings, and overcrowded shelters from Lebanon to Turkey to Jordan, these women are surviving on dwindling aid, exposed to cold, hunger, fear, and in many cases, violence and exploitation. And in their wombs, a biological chain reaction is unfolding, one that science is only just beginning to fully grasp.
The Chemical Legacy of Conflict: Cortisol as a Messenger of War
When the body enters a prolonged state of danger, it turns to its internal alarm system: the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This triggers the release of cortisol, a stress hormone designed to help us survive short-term threats. But in war, the danger is constant. The alarm never shuts off.
In pregnant women, sustained cortisol elevation becomes a molecular signal. As explained above, it crosses the placenta, reaching the foetus and priming it for a world of threat. This is not metaphorical—it’s measurable. Studies on Syrian refugee mothers, particularly those in displacement camps, show cortisol levels far exceeding clinical baselines for chronic stress.
These hormones aren’t neutral. They shape neural architecture, rewire immune responses, and alter how genes are expressed. The womb becomes a place where war is not only remembered, but biologically rehearsed.
Epigenetic Echoes: How Trauma Alters Gene Expression in Syrian Offspring
Epigenetics, the science of how environmental factors regulate gene activity, has revealed startling insights into the Syrian refugee crisis. Researchers studying Syrian children born in exile have discovered:
Altered methylation patterns in genes involved in stress regulation (NR3C1), inflammation (IL6, TNF-α), and brain development (BDNF).
Accelerated epigenetic aging, where children show biological markers of cellular stress typically seen in adults under chronic psychological trauma.
Increased expression of pro-inflammatory genes, suggesting the immune system is being programmed into a permanent state of hyper-alert.
These epigenetic changes are not damage to the DNA code itself, but chemical modifications that determine which genes are turned “on” or “off.” They’re like bookmarks, guiding the body on how to react to its environment, even before birth.
Children Born as Refugees: Biological Consequences of Being Displaced Before Birth
Syrian children born in refugee camps or during displacement consistently show:
Heightened cortisol reactivity, meaning they over-respond to stress and struggle to recover physiologically.
Cognitive development delays, particularly in executive functioning, language acquisition, and memory.
Disrupted sleep patterns and sensory processing challenges, both linked to altered limbic system activity.
Poor immune resilience, with greater frequency of respiratory infections, skin disorders, and inflammatory diseases.
These are not simply “hard starts” to life—they are systemic, deeply biological effects rooted in gestational trauma. And because they are programmed so early, they can persist well into adolescence and adulthood, shaping personality, emotion, behaviour, and health.
Inherited Wounds: How War Passes Through Generations
The tragedy of Syria is that its war does not end with those who lived through the shelling, imprisonment, or escape. It’s now being documented in their children and possibly their grandchildren.
Emerging data from multigenerational studies on Syrian refugee families suggest:
Maternal trauma is linked to stress hyper-reactivity in both daughters and sons, even in cases where the children are raised in relative post-war safety.
Fathers who endured torture or extreme trauma show epigenetic alterations in sperm—some of which have been correlated with behavioural differences in their children.
Children born into displacement exhibit gene expression patterns similar to those observed in PTSD patients, even if they have never directly experienced violence themselves.
War embeds itself not only in memory but in molecular form through gene regulation, immune signatures, and neurodevelopmental trajectories.
The Biology of Belonging: Why Safety Is More Than Shelter
For Syrian refugees, healing cannot come through food parcels and tents alone. Safety must be sustained, predictable, and nurturing, because it is only in safe environments that the stress systems of these children can learn to shut down. Only then can their epigenetic scripts begin to rewrite themselves.
But without that safety, without legal stability, education, adequate healthcare, and psychological support, these chemical scars remain. They determine how a child will learn, love, react, and grow.
The legacy of Syria’s war is not just geopolitical. It is genomic.
Unless we act with both compassion and scientific urgency, we risk building a future where the war outlives even the memories of those who survived it.
The Invisible Wounds of War: How Chronic Trauma Rewires Generations
To focus solely on the physical destruction of war is to overlook its most insidious legacy, the biological imprint that trauma leaves behind, one that reverberates across lifetimes.
In Gaza, war is not just a series of bombings and blockades. It is a chronic state of threat that infiltrates every cell, every memory, every interaction. And its most enduring consequences are not always visible.
According to data from UN Women, the psychological toll of conflict is staggering:
75% of women in conflict zones report prolonged depression.
62% experience sleep disturbances, such as insomnia or night terrors.
65% suffer from chronic anxiety, flashbacks, or nightmares.
But these symptoms are not isolated mental health diagnoses. They are neurobiological consequences of sustained terror. They represent chronic dysregulation of the body’s primary stress systems, especially the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the hormonal cascade responsible for how we perceive and respond to danger.
The Brain Under Siege
When war becomes a constant backdrop, the human brain adapts, but not always in ways that serve long-term health. Prolonged exposure to traumatic stress reshapes core brain regions in both adults and children:
The amygdala, the brain's fear center, becomes hyperactive, leading to heightened vigilance, exaggerated startle responses, and difficulty feeling safe—even in moments of calm.
The prefrontal cortex, responsible for decision-making and emotional regulation, can shrink or under-develop, resulting in impulsivity, difficulty concentrating, and poor coping mechanisms.
The hippocampus, essential for memory and learning, is often damaged or reduced in volume, impairing cognitive development and emotional memory processing.
In young girls—whose brains are still forming—this wiring becomes the blueprint for how they understand the world, relationships, safety, and even themselves.
Trauma as a Developmental Blueprint
Children growing up under siege are not just reacting to war. They are being built by it. Their stress response systems are developing in real time, in an environment where danger is constant and safety is unpredictable.
What this means biologically:
Cortisol levels—chronically elevated in war conditions—reshape neural development, weakening the immune system and altering metabolism, increasing long-term risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and autoimmune conditions.
Mitochondrial function—responsible for energy regulation in cells—is impaired by sustained trauma, leading to fatigue, inflammation, and reduced cellular repair.
Neuroinflammation increases across brain regions, linked to anxiety, depression, and cognitive impairment.
Epigenetic modifications occur, altering the expression of genes related to mood regulation, immune response, and neuroplasticity. These changes can be inherited, meaning trauma experienced today can impact not just children, but grandchildren.
What Girls in Gaza Carry—Now and Into the Future
The young girls growing up in Gaza today are not passive witnesses to war. They are living laboratories of chronic trauma, being neurologically and biologically shaped by the world around them.
They may develop anhedonia—the inability to experience pleasure—as a survival mechanism in a joyless, unsafe environment.
They are more likely to internalize trauma, developing complex PTSD, which includes emotional numbness, distorted self-concept, and difficulty with relationships.
Their endocrine systems may mature more quickly as a biological adaptation to threat, increasing early onset of puberty and associated mental health vulnerabilities.
When these girls become women, their reproductive biology—from hormone regulation to placental development—may still bear the imprint of war. Their pregnancies could be complicated by prior stress, increasing risks for preeclampsia, low birth weight, and premature delivery.
And when they have children, those children may inherit the biological residue of war—increased stress sensitivity, dysregulated immune function, and a nervous system calibrated for fear.
Trauma Does Not End with a Ceasefire
Even if the violence were to stop tomorrow, the bodies and brains shaped by war will not forget. Without adequate mental health intervention, psychosocial support, and structural peacebuilding, this trauma will calcify—becoming part of the cultural and genetic fabric of future generations.
These are not temporary wounds. They are epigenetic architectures of pain, laid down in utero, reinforced in childhood, and transmitted through bloodlines.
And if unaddressed, they risk creating a future where entire communities remain neurologically tethered to war, long after the bombs have stopped falling.
A Generational Emergency: The Biological Toll of Prolonged Conflict in Gaza and Syria
This is not just a humanitarian crisis.
It is a multi-generational biological emergency, one in which war is not only destroying infrastructure, but rewiring the minds and bodies of entire populations, embedding trauma at the cellular, hormonal, and neurological level. The longer we delay healing, the deeper the wound becomes.
In both Gaza and Syria, war has become a persistent feature of childhood. These are not isolated events but prolonged assaults on human development, stretching from the womb to adulthood, from one generation into the next.
The effects of this continuous trauma are measurable in methyl groups on DNA, in cortisol-saturated synapses, in premature puberty and stunted neural connectivity. The cost of inaction will not only be tallied in graves, but in future bodies, bodies programmed for threat, exhausted by fear, and robbed of their biological potential before life has even begun.
The Science of Inherited Suffering
Trauma doesn’t simply reside in the mind—it lives in the body, and it can be passed down. The field of epigenetics has shown us that toxic stress, particularly in the perinatal and early childhood period, can lead to stable changes in gene expression, especially in genes governing the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, immune regulation, and neural plasticity.
Children in Gaza and Syria are exposed to:
Repeated activation of the stress response system, particularly cortisol and adrenaline surges, which over time result in allostatic load—the cumulative burden of chronic stress on bodily systems.
Neurodevelopmental disruptions, especially in the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex, leading to impaired emotional regulation, memory processing, and executive functioning.
Immune dysregulation, marked by increased pro-inflammatory cytokines and decreased T-cell function, which raises susceptibility to infection, autoimmune disorders, and chronic disease later in life.
Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, in which maternal trauma alters the child’s epigenome—modifying genes related to stress reactivity, mood disorders, and metabolism. These changes have been observed in conflict-affected populations from Holocaust survivors to Syrian refugees to Palestinian mothers in the West Bank and Gaza.
Chronic War as a Developmental Environment
No child should grow up with rubble as a playground, airstrikes as lullabies, or funerals as routine. Yet in Gaza and Syria, millions have never known anything else.
In Gaza, more than 50,000 pregnant women are currently enduring unimaginable conditions: lack of food, shelter, electricity, medical care, and continuous psychological terror.
In Syria, over 6 million children have been displaced, many of them born in refugee camps, and nearly two-thirds have experienced the loss of a loved one, the destruction of their home, or personal injury from war.
Both populations are exhibiting signs of toxic stress—a prolonged activation of the stress response system in the absence of protective relationships, which is directly correlated with reduced lifespan, cognitive impairment, and increased vulnerability to psychiatric disorders including PTSD, depression, and anxiety.
The Risk of Doing Nothing
To delay trauma recovery until “after peace” is a grave mistake, biologically, ethically, and strategically. The brain’s critical developmental windows do not wait for ceasefires. The first 1,000 days of life, including the prenatal period, are particularly sensitive to trauma and disruption, with lifelong implications.
Inaction now will manifest decades later as:
Increased rates of substance use disorders, self-harm, and violent behaviour in youth.
Reduced educational attainment and economic productivity due to cognitive impairments and chronic illness.
Heightened maternal mortality and low birth weight in future generations due to unresolved stress in women.
Deepening cycles of intergenerational trauma, social fragmentation, and conflict relapse.
Rebuilding Must Begin with Biology
To rebuild Gaza or Syria is not simply to clear rubble and deliver aid. We must reconstruct nervous systems, heal dysregulated stress responses, and repair cellular-level damage. This requires investment in systems of human repair:
1. Trauma-Informed Mental Health Systems
Scalable, community-based interventions such as psychosocial support groups, trauma counselling, and narrative exposure therapy.
Culturally grounded approaches that integrate religious and familial frameworks of meaning-making and resilience.
Use of emerging technologies (e.g., mobile mental health platforms) for displaced populations.
2. Maternal and Perinatal Healthcare
Clinics equipped to provide prenatal care, trauma-sensitive obstetrics, and postpartum support.
Screening for maternal depression, PTSD, and anxiety, which are directly linked to child outcomes.
Nutrition and supplementation programs to combat the biological consequences of stress and malnutrition in pregnancy.
3. Child-Focused Psychological Services
School-based mental health interventions targeting grief, fear, and emotional regulation.
Safe spaces for play and social learning to rewire the brain’s threat-response circuits.
Early intervention for children showing signs of developmental regression or attachment disturbances.
4. Education Systems That Acknowledge Grief
Curricula that validate loss and trauma, rather than ignoring it.
Teacher training in psychological first aid and trauma-informed pedagogy.
Inclusion of arts, storytelling, and culturally rooted healing practices to foster expression and resilience.
5. Scientific Research and Monitoring
Longitudinal studies on the epigenetic and neurobiological effects of war, so interventions can be tailored and tracked.
Research collaboration between local institutions and global academic centers to build local capacity.
Biobanks and public health registries to follow the molecular legacy of war across generations.
We cannot wait for peace to begin the work of healing.
We must recognize that recovery from war begins not with treaties, but with trauma support, maternal care, education, and evidence-based mental health services.
To do otherwise is to allow war to outlive its own violence.
To forfeit the future—biologically, psychologically, and collectively.
A Call to Action: The Urgent Need for Intervention
Relief Across Borders is not just responding to crisis. We are interrupting its transmission.
Our work focuses on frontline emotional survival—delivering trauma-informed care, maternal and neonatal support, psychological services for children, and dignity-preserving aid to women and girls who are shouldering the weight of war in their bodies, homes, and wombs.
We believe healing must begin now. Not after peace is negotiated. Not after the rubble is cleared. But while the cortisol still runs through a pregnant woman’s system, while the toddler still cries without understanding why, while the silence after a bomb is not yet safety, but shock.
Our Commitments
At Relief Across Borders, we are:
Establishing networks of local therapists and trained community responders who can provide culturally relevant, trauma-informed care
Partnering with midwives, nurses, and mental health professionals to offer both urgent and long-term support for pregnant women and mothers
Creating safe spaces and mobile clinics for children and families in displacement, especially in under-served areas
Securing critical funding for psychosocial programs in camps, shelters, and remote communities—where mental health support is most often overlooked
Collaborating with researchers and institutions to document and study the long-term biological impacts of war, ensuring data drives policy
But we cannot do this alone.
The Role of International Intervention
The world must redefine what intervention means in conflict zones.
True international intervention is not only diplomatic or logistical. It must be psychological, medical, and intergenerational.
It means:
Allocating international funding for mental health as an essential pillar of humanitarian aid, not a luxury or afterthought
Ensuring maternal and infant health services are embedded in all emergency relief protocols, including safe birthing environments, nutritional support, and emotional care
Supporting transgenerational trauma research so we can understand—and disrupt—the biological legacies of war
Centring women and children in peacebuilding efforts, recognizing that their healing is a prerequisite to any real, lasting recovery
And above all, it means listening to those who have survived, because they know what they need.
What we pass on to our children is not just culture or language or memory. It’s biology.
And when that biology has been shaped by terror, we are not just rebuilding cities—we are fighting for the health of future generations.
The next generation is watching—some from the cradles of displacement, some from the ashes of maternity wards, and some from inside wombs exposed to war.
They do not yet speak. But their biology is already telling a story.
Let it not be a story of neglect. Let it be one of international solidarity, of science-driven compassion, of urgent, fearless action.
At Relief Across Borders, we are building that story. We believe that no child should inherit war in their genes.
We are committed to supporting communities with mental health care, trauma-informed support, and the safe conditions they need to break this cycle.
Join us. Invest in healing. Support our mission.
Because the future does not begin after the war ends. It begins now.
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