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‘Pyscho-social’

The term psycho-social refers to one in psychological development in and interaction with a social environment 

 

About our new project partner - Terre des hommes

Terre Des Hommes has been working in Sri Lanka for 30 years and for 11 years in Batticaloa and Ampara Districts. In both districts, Terre Des Hommes is implementing a Psycho-social Project aimed at protecting children affected by the Tsunami and armed conflict. In Batticaloa and Ampara Districts, Terre Des Hommes is also implementing a Mother-Child Health program, covering 150 villages.

The Project outlined by Terre des hommes

Psycho-social activities for children will be offered along the coastal belt in Ampara District and Batticaloa District. Vulnerable communities have been selected, with 6 communities in Ampara District and 9 communities in Batticaloa District. Five recreation centers (1 in Ampara and 4 in Batticaloa District) will be used currently running psycho-social projects. The project will address the needs of the young people in fishing communities and identify psycho-social damages related to the Tsunami and the armed conflict. The identified communities are known either through emergency interventions of the past or through psycho-social interventions since 2005. What they have in common is their close location to the sea, the damages of Tsunami and to some extent, exposure to armed conflict shown in higher abduction rates and conscription. Terre des Hommes also observed very high panic levels during and after the tsunami alert on 12th September 2007.

 Objective of the project

Final aim:

Children in two Eastern Districts of Sri Lanka have acquired coping mechanisms to overcome the consequences of the Tsunami and the ongoing conflict situation.

Principal objective:

By the end of the project, at least 5.000 children and adolescents from Tsunami and war affected communities in Batticaloa and Ampara districts of Sri Lanka have an increased sense of self-esteem, and show a higher level of resilience.

Result 1:

Children have significantly overcome their fears related to the Tsunami and have an improved sense of well-being.

Result 2:

Youth from war and Tsunami-affected communities are empowered.

 

Project beneficiaries

Direct Beneficiaries:

  • 5,000 children between 6 and 12 years
  • 10 youth clubs

 Indirect Beneficiaries:

  • Fishing communities along the coastal belt stretching from Ampara to Batticaloa.

 

Description of the project

Children and young people are the center of the project. Their involvement in all stages of the project is considered to be essential. They will learn skills to enable them to think, plan and conduct activities independently.

Animators and their mobilisers, guided by experienced psycho-social project managers, will be assigned to the 15 selected communities. In all communities 30 animators and mobilisers will work with children and 20 animators with youth groups.

The project is about assisting children and youth to build more resilience regarding the consequences of the Tsunami and the ongoing conflict situation. The analysis of the Focus Group Discussions clearly shows that people, especially children and youth live in a constant state of insecurity. People no longer speak about their own suffering and are impaired in their awareness of the suffering of others. They often do not take part in communal activities and stay away from groups. Even among the like-minded, dialogue becomes more difficult.

 

Result 1: Psycho-social intervention targeting 5000 children

Children have significantly overcome their fears related to the Tsunami and have an improved sense of well-being.

The program will carry out a set of activities which proved to be successful in ensuring the children’s proper development. Children will benefit from:

  • Sport activities
  • Drama
  • Drawing
  • Games
  • Music
  • Child to child activities
  • Social group work
  • Movement Games and Sport
  • Confidence-with-Water activities

‘Confidence-with-water’ classes will be one component of the above mentioned activities.  The goal is to help tsunami-affected children overcome their fears, realizing again a pre-tsunami feeling towards the sea, and to improve their self-esteem by improving their confidence in the ocean through fun activity and basic swimming instructions. Swimming is a life skill. It touches the lives of many children and can engage more participants than any other activity. It has the capacity to positively impact on behavior, engage unmotivated young people and help children become more involved in their community and lead a positive life. Therefore, the “Confidence-With-Water” approach is an important approach to reduce fears and risks as well as to encourage children to learn swimming.

Regular play activities for children will be supported by training and supervision of the animators on a monthly basis. In addition, events will be set up for the children, such as children’s day, cultural programs, exhibition of paintings, sport events and competitions, and ‘confidence-with-water’ training. The animators will organise regular recreation, sports activities for the children of the communities.

Besides those recreational activities the animators will organise community events such as children group sessions and family discussions, in order to talk about the Tsunami and to talk about fears in order to stimulate better self-confidence, self-assurance, self-respect, and to explore opportunities and greater freedom.

In order to involve the communities from the beginning, the project will organise meetings with community elders, parents, existing youth clubs and children and local NGOs to plan how recreation, games and sport activities for their children can be best implemented. The need to take care of adults as well as children is being proven by recent studies in psycho-social projects which clearly show that they suffer from the same effects of trauma, as children and sometimes even more. Because “a blind cannot lead a blind”, the emphasis must be put on adults in charge of the children: animators, supervisors, and even parents. They need outside support to be able to help themselves before playing the role of efficient guides (normative as well as caring) for traumatised children.

The 5 existing recreation centers, which are located near the sea, will be included since the Tsunami alert on 12th September 2007 has shown very high levels of anxiety and panic among children there: Islamabad , Kattankudy , Onthachimadam, Kaluthavalai, Cheddipalayam.

The new project approach in these 5 centers will build on existing achievements, and the existing Movement, Sports and Games (MGS) activities will be adapted to address especially the tsunami fears and its implications for children in those communities. The project will therefore enter into a partnership with the community-based organization, which will continue to manage the centers after the present project comes to an end.

The program is offered without cost to all children regardless of their ethnic and religious backgrounds or their gender. A special focus will be put on facilitating the access of the girls to the activities. It focuses on the psycho-social needs of the children and youth in distress by improving their well being. Play and recreation is, by definition, an integral part of a child’s well being, especially in situations such as a natural disaster and a conflict. Still the purpose of these activities is for the children and youth to express their feelings and emotions, to have pleasure, to release stress and tensions. Children receive psycho-social care, through the activities, reinforcing their well being.

2 animators per community will be assigned, trained and supervised by well-trained community mobilisers (1 mobilisers for 2 communities). Animators and community mobilisers will be supervised and advised by a psycho-social program manager, each one per district.

The Movement, Games and Sport (MGS) program which was introduced by Terre Des Hommes between April and June 2006 in all the psycho-social activity centres will be integrated and adapted in the continual development of children and youth affected by the Tsunami and the ongoing conflict. The objectives within this program are designed to increase volunteer animators and activity trainers’ competence’s to improve interventions with children; which is maintained through a system of matured replication according to skills and needs (and remains the base of training for new staff). The MGS program increases staff and children relationships and reinforces child participation through the use of meaningful (not just recreational) activities within a psycho-social approach.

Focusing on movement, games and sport, is a very powerful tool: powerful in terms of cultural universality, children accessibility and easy availability. It engages the whole of the person through the head, heart and body, the footsteps left in people by the shared experience of a game are strong, building bonds (be them positive or negative) between them.

As Winnicott explains, physical activities are a “transitional space” that can be used by trained coaches to address children’s disturbing behaviours, emotions and aggressiveness. It is a special context that avoids the person confrontation, by giving a space to go to and then leave. And at the same time it can reveal and heal problematic behaviours.

In a brief summary, here is the 4 stages learning process:

  • concrete experimentation
  • reflective observation
  • abstract conceptualisation
  • active experimentation
  • The theoretical aspects are linked to both psychosocial issues such as grief process, attachment theory, perception, communication, group dynamics, and conflict resolution, as well as methodological and physical activities issues.

The practical experience is gained through demonstration lessons with children. By putting them in practical situations that require planning and teaching physical activities to groups of children and then evaluating the results through peer feedback sessions, trainees go through the whole learning process focused on their daily practice with children.

Healthy competition (overcoming one’s limits, fair-play and respect of winner and losers equally…) will be balanced with situations of cooperation. Children will naturally develop their competitive nature, especially in a context of survival.

The adults’ role is to help children to develop their cooperative skills, focusing on teamwork to reach a goal or a mission, or on integration of boys and girls in the same games.