Psychological Intervention for Palestinian Children & Parents

Psychological Intervention for Palestinian Children & Parents Community training centre and crisis management activities after Gaza war

CBI activities. CBI sessions for targeted children and parents went a head all over the three months in nine locations, the hosting associations where neighborhood was fed up were replaced by new ones. During the CBI sessions ,the projects activators implement many and different CBI activities according the CBI Manual ,including Drawing, Role-Play, imagination, Psycho-Drama and participation in the recreational activities, they do their best by practicing these activities to reduce the aggressive behaviors among the targeted

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children and give children debriefing activities to protect and secure them from the effects of psychological stress. The total number of beneficiaries reach 5826 out of 6500 by the end of November 09, although the number of beneficiaries decreased in September 443 clients because of Ramadan, Eidul Fitr and school beginning, it approximately duplicated in October and November 835, 784, the overall number of managed cases is 2080 shown in the following table : Ser. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

Society name Women Activity Center Cultural Youth Jabalia Tamkeen Baitona Holist Cultural Center Palestinian Youth Center Alaqsa Benevolent Society Attawheed Society Attayeb Kindergarten Almajd Bela Hodood Society Haneen Society Bait El-Khair Kindergarten Al'ataa Society Ayadi el-khair Alhoda Benevolent Society Alafaq Society Fatayat Society Total

Area Jabalia Camp Jabalia City North Gaza North Gaza East Gaza Daraj town Sheja'eya Rimal area Sh.Radwan Zeitoon Gaza Sheja'eya Sha'af Sheja'eya Sheja'eya Zeiton Beach Camp

Sep. 0 44 43 41 48 0 0 0 48 0 0 57 51 65 46 0 0 443

Number Oct. Nov. 48 23 46 46 84 25 81 0 88 99 68 98 48 0 95 100 101 49 100 98 94 90 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 50 0 106 853 784

Total 71 136 152 122 235 166 48 195 198 198 184 57 51 65 46 50 106 2080

Break down of age groups within children : Every group includes different ages but mostly each group had close age group , those who are in the elementary school (6-8 yrs) have almost close attendance over the three months , while those who are among ( 8-10 yrs) have different attendance, they present half the targeted group in November and about half of such number attended in October while they were represented by only 26 % in September. According to those who are over 10 yrs they represented mostly half the group in October , while in the other two months they do have almost the same attendance ratio ( less than 30%) the following table illustrates such breakdown of representation.

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Ages 6-8 8-10 Over 10 Total

September 32% 42% 26% 100%

Months October 26% 28% 46% 100%

November 23% 49% 28% 100%

Although the total targeted number of parents is 1500, 2125 clients benefited from ANERA's project.

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Content of sessions : 1.

How do fear protect me and what happen to my body . In this session the children started to build their group and collected as one unit on the parachute that have a circle figure. They overcame their shyness from each other and from the activators and they learnt during this session that fear is a normal reaction to specific circumstances and it encourages them to look for safety measures after they express their response , in the session they talked and determined the changes that happen in each of them when facing fearful situation, they learn also the importance of patience. The session include exercises such symbol dance where the activator make a sign or a movement and the participant should do the same exactly.

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My safe place In this session free drawing is open for kids , after talking about and determining the safe place for each of them , they draw their relations with others , the social atom , the most safe are for them , they like such exercises as it promote the communication between them and others , they get encouraged to relate with family , friends and colleagues positively.

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Fear and weakness in my body.

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In this session the kid learnt how to be brave to determine their own fear , their weakness points in their body and they drew them , they drew the body and colored weak points , and they talked about them during the session and how to strengthen them, many funny and purposeful exercises are conducted during the session like : the guard , who's the leader, brave statue , balance feathers . 4.

When I'm Angry, Happy, and Sad. Applauding dance is one of the nice exercises that kids loved it , they have to do some movements and when the activator applaud they have to stop suddenly , they learn how to respond , how to exchange roles in the joy circle. In this session the kids expressed their feelings , although some of them find difficulties to participate because of shyness, some of them are hyperactive and don't want to stop talking and want to talk all the time , so every one is encouraged to express within time limit and without neglecting any child , the way of expression was open either by drawing or playing or talking or role playing , dancing ….etc. The child also learn how to control feelings after gaining the power and courage to express them , they find the pleasure and happiness in such exercises and get closure to each other within the group.

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What shall I do and in which thing I'm perfect. In this session , they learn and gain some skills of negotiation, positive behaviors , they drew themselves, they learn about the real and un real , they divided into small groups of two where the first one lay down on paper where his/her colleague draw the borders of his/her body with a pencil , and after that the other will do the same , then the pictures are hanged on the wall and the kids talk about such experience , they found it lovely experience.

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What did I think, what was my response, what did I see, how did I react after danger. In this session kids explored their own difficult experiences, and learnt about the importance of being in this group with each other and how to help each other and how to participate in solving a problem, they learnt about each other responses during story telling about experiences, in this session the girls looked more tearful , although some male kids who lost their close relatives found it difficult to control their tears .

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What did I miss, what have been changed . They learnt how to accept change , perceive the concept of close relations , unity , expression on feeling , in this session they also drew the social atom and family 5

members , what have been changed , during the session educative exercises took place like leader and king, clean harbors . 8.

Help , Help me. Of course in this session they learn how to help each other , how to help people, they tell stories about their own experiences in helping others, they learnt some skills on problem solving , how to interact among each other and the session included many purposeful exercises that the children liked them very much as : how to help a friend with covered eyes to pass between various obstacles on the ground to reach safe place, other exercises like competition , fishing also took place.

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Strength and safety in my body. They learnt how to promote the strength among themselves , the trust and self confidence and they are guided on how to use the strength points in body . One of the exercises used is the monkey and nuts, the strong persons,

10.

What's the new and different that I learnt about myself . In this session the kids reviewed what they learnt all over the previous sessions, the activators listened to them and they listened to the activators feedback on that , some issues if misunderstood are being corrected by the feedback which is mutual , as the children in this session are more close than before to each other and to the activator and this enhance the confidence to comment and participate in discussion , of course such session had its own funny purposeful exercises such as the empty chair where there is a number of kids more than the number of chairs by one and they need to compete to have a place on the chair , if one was not fast to ran around the chair and is not concentrating with the activator when s/he say stop in order to respond by choosing a chair before any other , other exercises included ( black ink, News…etc).

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Friends and trust. In this session kids learnt the importance of friendship , how to strengthen their relations, cooperation is promoted in order to practice this not only in this group but also with others in family , school , relatives and neighborhood. They had meditation exercises on tolerance where they relax and start meditating , they imaging some one who hurt them before and during the meditation they offer him/her the forgiveness, and also they imagine someone who was hurt by them and they asked him/her for forgiveness. A child may choose for example a friend who hurt him/her and in the exercise s/he talk to him/her and offer forgiveness, on the other hand some kids imagined the 6

mother and asked her for forgiveness during the meditation ( in some cases because s/he hurt a brother or sister, or did not do school work for example). 12.

Lets build a village . The session was very

fruitful and interesting also, the children expressed their

feelings and of course they had long time and experience over the past sessions so they all expressed their feelings , they took about their image about future and what they look for , all of them were positive and optimistic about future and dreamt of better situation , some closed his/her eyes and imagined him/her self as a doctor in a clinic , other is an engineer , other is a trader, electricians ,…..etc. Concepts of safety was created among them and seeds of cooperation were enhanced and encouraged. Closing rituals took place in this session with some funny interesting exercises.

Case presentation activities and deep therapy committee. A committee of three mental health specialists was formed to discover the cases that need further and deep intervention, the field activators were trained to filter such cases from the field and refer them to the treating committee which will work on them either in the center CTCCM or in other relating organizations. The specialists offer individual therapy for clients and their families and conduct home and school visits upon need and the methods used in such deep intervention included the following : 

Individual counseling sessions.

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Family counseling and guidance either in the center or in home visits.

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Cognitive therapy.

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Behavioral therapy and spiritual counseling.

A case conference to discuss difficult cases is being held once weekly , and it's attended by the field activators and mental health specialists to discuss and decide on cases that need deep intervention. Cases that were worked on included behavioral disorders, enuresis or bed wetting , trauma, isolation, poor academic achievement , aggression …..etc The total number of cases the committee worked that needed specialized therapeutic and advanced treatment is 55 cases in those three months.

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Such cases showed improvement based on the specialist's findings , the clients , the families and schools. The following are the indicators on client's progress : 

Clear reaction of the client which was noticed by the counselor.

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Improvement of the client's participant with his colleagues.

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Improvement on the educational level of the child.

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Increasing the expressing ability regard feelings.

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The behavioral aggression has been vanished.

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Progression toward the normal behavior.

Presentation of the cases in the case conference

Child Parliament commencement. Beside working on improving the psychosocial situation of the kids and parents, ANERA's project works also on discovering the talented kids, encouraging them and improving their capabilities. To attain that the child parliament activity was found and a festival was held in the main square of Al Remal area ( Al Jondy Al Majhool area) to announce that. Such festival was attended by at least 5000 person from kids who attended ANERA's psychosocial program, their parents and others. So far 22 kids registered their names who have special talents and qualification. 8

The beginning of the festival in Al Jondy Almajhool in Gaza

VISITORS visits to the CTCCM Activities. Several representatives from ANERA visited the project : 

Mr. Bill Corcoran visited the Project work field in August 2009, this visit has reinforced the trust among the team members where Mr. B. Corcoran praised the significant performance of the Project team and the positive effects on the psychological and behavioral situation of the targeted children.

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A visit made by Dr. Maii Haddad (The Project Coordinator in Lebanon) and Ms. Ann Mary Marsa (Program Assistant) in September where they demonstrated to the team of CTCCM the activities that were implemented in Lebanon in the aftermath of 2006 War, of which can be applied in Gaza, the visit was useful and so fruitful.

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Another visit of Mr. Bill Corcoran, Nancy Nye, and Laurie Kassman in the beginning of November 2009 for the purpose of follow up of the Project, the visitors showed their admiration to the performance of the specialized activators in promotion of children's mental health and behavioral

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modification, also the counseling activities conducted by the therapeutic Counseling Unit ( the committee).

Capacity Building for the project's teamwork . Training a specialized course in therapeutic counseling to CTCCM staff in September to ensure implementation of what was demonstrated by the Project Director and Coordinator in the field training course. A training course to renew and update the Project activities and techniques was held in October based on the recommendations of Dr. Maii Haddad visit where the Project management and teamwork discussed several activities in terms of objectives and means of implementation considering renewing and recreation. One week training course for the teamwork on several skills to improve their performance in the field and enable them to communicate effectively, it included: 1. Presentation skills 2. Writing reports 3. Presentation of scientific models for feedback activities. 4. Recreational activities resulted in improving the morale of the Project staff.

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The following table illustrates the implementing training activities Date &Day Saturday 21st November Sunday 22nd November Monday 23rd November

Tuesday 24th November Wednesday 25th November

The Training Activity Case Presentation

Time 9:00-10:30

The Trainer Ramadan El Hellou

Particular Model 1* Particular Model 2 Representation and Introducing Skills 1 Representation and Introducing Skills 2

9:00-10:00 11:00-1:00 9:00-10:30 11:00-1:00

Maher Al Sherafi Walla' Hassan

Writing Reports skills 1 Writing Reports skills 2 Recreational Open Day

9:00-10:30 11:00-1:00 11:00-1:00

Maher El Malekh

Mahmoud El Damaa'

* These two modules were conducted by the main activators and they include new activities developed from them on how to deal with trauma.

Future vision. 

Recreational activities: will be expanded to include festivals for children and parents in several areas especially those where the project took place , this includes the child parliament activities.

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Enhancing performance of the Project Team and decreasing stress in the work field: The teamwork sometimes need training on relaxation and emotional debriefing to promote their abilities and communication, the previous positive effects of the implemented recreational activities enhanced that.

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