Mental Wellbeing
Providing Mental Well-being to Children in need
Of the 35 million people currently displaced from their homes by conflict or natural disasters, 80% are women and children. This displacement denies and violates the basic rights and needs of children – their sense of security, family, and community; opportunities to go to school; and access to health care.
ChildFund has responded to the needs of children in war-torn and disaster-affected countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Angola, Chad, East Timor, Guatemala, Indonesia, Liberia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Northern Uganda, and India.
ChildFund supports the following types of emergency programs:
- Food distribution
- Shelter
- Water and sanitation
- Education
- Family tracing
- Reintegration of former child soldiers and abducted children
- Psychosocial interventions
- Child Centered Spaces
A Child-Centered Approach
ChildFund has developed a child-centered approach and prioritises child protection in the design and implementation of all emergency programs. Children and their families possess vital and often underestimated capacities to protect children’s well-being and cope positively with stressful and risky conditions. Once these capacities are recognized and supported, recovery and normalcy is possible in the midst of chaos.
A key element of ChildFund’s assistance to children affected by war or disaster is the Child Centered Spaces ChildFund has established. The Child Centered Spaces:
- Give children a safe place to play that supports their social integration and enables their emotional expression so as to help them come to terms with difficult experiences and heal from the trauma of natural disasters or war;
- Offer children a sense of safety and security, help to normalize their lives, and teach them about risks;
- Provide a platform for restarting formal education and planning longer-term projects;
- Often provide basic health care, supplemental feeding, and other necessities.
In addition to Child Centered Spaces, ChildFund works to bring a greater voice to children’s needs, rights, and ideas in emergencies through the formation of Child Well-Being Committees (CWBCs). With ChildFund’s support, these committees comprise parents, children, and youth and increase communities’ capacities to address numerous issues affecting the protection, well-being, and health of children, families, and vulnerable groups.
Reaching Vulnerable Children Affected by Conflict
ChildFund has developed specially tailored programs for vulnerable populations which:
- Trace and reunify unaccompanied children;
- Demobilise and reintegrate children associated with fighting forces;
- Provide psychological support for women and girl victims of gender-based violence;
- Impart skills training and income-generating activities for women and adolescents.
Examples of CHILDFUND Innovations in Emergency Programming
- Supporting Child Protection in Therapeutic Feeding Centers (Chad): In partnership with Médecins Sans Frontières-Belgique (MSF), ChildFund has established two Child Centered Spaces in MSF Therapeutic Feeding centers in the Tullum and Iridimi camps for Sudanese refugees from Darfur. This collaboration strengthens and develops a protective environment for malnourished refugee children. Operating out of tents, these Child Centered Spaces provide opportunities for non-formal education as well as a safe space for girls and boys to participate in games, toy building, recreation, song and dance, and other activities that support child protection. A team of parents and nurses trained by ChildFund on topics such as healthy child development, child rights, and stimulating activities for war-affected children organizes and supervises these activities.
- Promoting Child Protection at Local Levels (Uganda): In the Teso Region of northern Uganda, armed conflict and displacement has affected the majority of children. Children who were abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army are particularly vulnerable to neglect and psychosocial problems. To build community support for reintegration efforts and activities for youth, orphans, and separated children, ChildFund is implementing a UNICEF-funded Child Protection Project that builds local capacities for child protection in the Teso Region, increases protection and psychosocial support for highly vulnerable children and youth, and prevents sexual and gender-based violence.
- Helping Children and Communities Affected by the Tsunami (Southeast Asia): In Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and India, ChildFund is working with local and national governments in tsunami-affected communities to meet basic needs such as food, water, sanitation, and medical care. ChildFund teams are addressing the specific emotional and psychological needs of children who are coping with this natural disaster. ChildFund has established Child Centered Spaces in camps for internally displaced persons where children can play, interact with friends and teachers, express themselves through art, dance, and singing, and resume normal childhood activities as they begin to process the devastating events they have experienced. As families leave the camps and return home to their communities, ChildFund is focusing on assisting affected communities through interventions that restore livelihoods and meet the needs of children and other vulnerable populations.
ChildFund has carried out emergency programs using funding assistance from various UN and Government agencies, such as NZAID.
