In this Section:
Our Work...
The charitable objectives for which the group is established are to promote the welfare and relieve suffering and distress of children who are victims of conflict in the Palestinian Occupied Territories in particular to:
Pilot work began in 2004 in the implementation of a creative arts intervention for children of the West Bank, Palestine. The objective was to use the creative arts, and in particular music, to help children deal with the difficulties of living in an environment of life-threatening danger, brutalisation and conflict. In particular, the intervention was designed to offer help to those with clinically diagnosed or diagnosable symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The locations for the first wave of pilot projects were camps in the Bethlehem area. The second wave is based in three camps in Nablus – al-Ein, al-Askar 1 and Balata - and the most recent intervention, a project of six weeks duration, was focussed on a population of 70 children selected by the camp authorities on the basis of level of trauma and need. This work was carried out in close collaboration with the Palestinian Union of Social Workers and Psychologists and its impact on the children was assessed through structured discussion with all parents and carers.
The assessment indicated strong and encouraging progress in areas of socialisation, reduction of stress (including reduced bedwetting) increases in levels of joy and energy, self-esteem, physical coordination, attention to studies and reduction in aggressive behaviours and violent fantasies (including carrying imitation guns and ambitions to be suicide bombers). The success of this second wave of pilot work has prompted the Union of Social Workers and Psychologists to propose an immediate systematic implementation of the project in all four camps in the Nablus area, that is to say al-Ein, al-Askar 1 and 2 and Balata and in four children’s centres in the Old City of Nablus, where levels of trauma are also high.
The current proposal is concerned with the implementation of this project.
